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Genetic  studies  of  genius 

I4-**  gifted  group  at  nil-life 


GENETIC    STUDIES    OF    GENIUS 

EDITED  BY 

LEWIS  M.  TERM  AN 


VOLUME  V 
THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

THIRTY- FIVE  YEARS*  FOLLOW-UP  OF  THE  SUPERIOR  CHILD 


GENETIC  STUDIES  OF  GENIUS 

EDITED  BY  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN 

VOLUME  I.  MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TRAITS  OF  A 
THOUSAND  GIFTED  CHILDREN 

By  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN  and  OTHERS 

VOLUME  II.  THE  EARLY  MENTAL  TRAITS  OF 
THREE  HUNDRED  GENIUSES 

By  CATHARINE  M.  Cox 

VOLUME  III.  THE  PROMISE  OF  YOUTH  :  FOLLOW-UP 
STUDIES  OF  A  THOUSAND  GIFTED  CHILDREN 

By  BARBARA  S.  BURKS,  DORTHA  W.  JENSEN, 
and  LEWIS  M,  TERMAN 

VOLUME  IV.  THE  GIFTED  CHILD  GROWS  UP  :  TWENTY- 
FIVE  YEARS'  FOLLOW-UP  OF  A  SUPERIOR  GROUP 
By  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN  and  MELITA  H.  ODEN 

VOLUME  V.  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE  :  THIRTY- 
FIVE  YEARS'  FOLLOW-UP  OF  THE  SUPERIOR  CHILD 

By  LEWIS  M.  TERMAN  and  MELITA  H.  ODEN 


THIRTY-FIVE  YEARS7  FOLLOW-UP 
OF  THE  SUPERIOR  CHILD 


VOLUME  V 

GENETIC  STUDIES  OF  GENIUS 


LEWIS  M.  TERMAN  AND  MELITA  H.  ODEN 


STANFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

STANFORD,  CALIFORNIA 

LONDON:   OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1959 


STANFORD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 
STANFORD,   CALIFORNIA 

LONDON:  OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

©  1959  BY  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES  OF  THE 
LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR  UNIVERSITY 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

PRINTED   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 
LIBRARY  OF  CONGRESS  CATALOG  CARD  NUMBER:     25-8797  REV. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  FINANCIAL 
ASSISTANCE 

The  research  studies  reported  in  this  volume  have  been  financed  by 
grants-in-aid  and  anonymous  gifts  totaling  close  to  $250,000. 

The  greater  part  of  the  expenses  incurred  between  1921  and  1929 
were  defrayed  by  the  Commonwealth  Fund  of  New  York  City.  Stan- 
ford University,  through  the  Thomas  Welton  Stanford  Fund,  financed 
the  follow-up  study  of  1936-37  and  contributed  minor  supplementary- 
funds  as  needed  between  1928  and  1936. 

The  Carnegie  Corporation  of  New  York  provided  two  grants  which 
made  possible  the  extensive  follow-up  of  1939-41  and  the  statistical 
work  on  the  resulting  data  between  1941  and  1943.  The  National  Re- 
search Council,  through  its  Committee  for  Research  on  Problems  of 
Sex,  financed  the  studies  on  marital  adjustments  reported  in  Volume 
IV,  and  the  Columbia  Foundation  of  San  Francisco  provided  three 
annual  grants  which  met  approximately  three-fourths  of  the  expenses 
incurred  between  1943  and  1946  in  continued  follow-up  of  the  subjects 
and  analysis  of  data.  Annual  grants  from  the  Marsden  Foundation  of 
Palm  Springs  from  1946  to  1953  provided  partial  support  of  the  study 
during  those  years. 

Three  grants  from  the  Carnegie  Corporation  from  1949  to  1951  and 
a  grant  from  the  Rockefeller  Corporation  in  1950  financed  the  1950-52 
follow-up  investigation.  A  research  contract  from  the  Office  of  Naval 
Research  in  1951  defrayed  the  expenses  of  a  study  of  scientists  and  non- 
scientists  in  the  gifted  group. 

In  1955  a  grant  from  the  Fund  for  the  Advancement  of  Education 
made  possible  the  mail  follow-up  of  that  year  and  the  preparation  of 
much  of  the  data  for  this  volume. 

Material  assistance  has  been  provided  from  time  to  time  by  gifts 
from  various  individual  donors  including  several  parents  of  the  gifted 
subjects,  a  few  of  the  subjects  themselves,  the  owner  of  a  well-known 
magazine,  and  other  anonymous  donors. 

To  all  these  benefactors,  grateful  acknowledgment  of  their  support 
is  made. 

By  special  arrangement,  all  royalties  from  the  publications  result- 
ing from  this  study  have  been  assigned  to  the  research  funds. 


FOREWORD 

This  report  on  the  further  development  of  the  Terman  Gifted  Group 
brings  them  into  mid-life.  It  provides  a  concise  summary  of  the  main 
findings  reported  in  previous  volumes,  and  then  presents  the  data  ob- 
tained in  the  field  and  mail  follow-up  studies  that  were  completed  in 
1955.  It  tells,  dramatically  but  objectively,  what  thirty-five  years  of  liv- 
ing have  done  to  those  gifted  eleven-year-olds  whose  characteristics 
were  first  described  in  Volume  I  of  this  series.  If  the  interim  evidence 
examined  here  leads  to  any  one  salient  conclusion,  it  is  that  the  end  of 
their  intellectual  and  social  vigor  is  not  yet  in  sight.  Indeed,  if  ever 
there  was  excitement  in  figures,  it  is  in  those  that  form  the  data  for  this 
skillfully  presented  and  gracefully  written  report  of  what  these  men  and 
women  look  like  in  their  maturity.  For  many  a  student  of  contemporary 
society,  this  volume  will  be  the  pay-off,  the  best  and  most  informative 
of  the  series  of  Genetic  Studies  of  Genius. 

Professor  Terman  began  this  study  in  1921,  when  he  was  in  his 
mid-forties,  and  most  of  the  children  were  about  eleven.  When  he  died 
near  the  end  of  his  eightieth  year,  the  "children"  had  reached  their  mid- 
forties  themselves,  and  Professor  Terman  had  maintained  continuous 
data  collection  from  them  for  more  than  three  decades.  In  this  time,  he 
conducted  three  major  field  studies,  several  mail  follow-ups,  tested  a 
large  proportion  of  the  group's  offspring,  and  maintained  such  close 
personal  relationships  with  the  nearly  1,500  members  of  the  group  that 
95  percent  of  them  were  still  active  research  subjects. 

The  present  volume  was  fully  planned  and  the  data  analysis  com- 
pleted before  Professor  Terman's  death.  He  had  written  initial  drafts 
of  Chapters  I,  II,  III,  and  IX,  and  had  made  notes  for  Chapter  XI ; 
Mrs.  Oden  wrote  the  others,  and  prepared  the  final  manuscript  for 
publication.  Thus  ends  a  personal  collaboration  of  many  years  and  many 
volumes.  It  was  a  fortunate  one,  and  one  for  which  the  collaborators' 
colleagues  render  much  thanks. 

What  does  not  end  is  the  lives  and  careers — and  our  study — of  the 
gifted  group.  With  data  already  in  hand,  Mrs.  Oden  will  continue  the 
analysis  of  developmental  trends,  including  a  number  of  investigations 
that  had  been  projected  by  Professor  Terman.  The  body  of  information 
provided  by  the  gifted  group  to  date  is  extremely  valuable,  not  only  for 


Vlii  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

the  findings  already  reported,  but  for  analyses  yet  to  be  made.  The 
future  promises  information  of  equal  importance.  Professor  Terman 
foresaw  this  clearly,  and  before  his  death  he  completed  arrangements 
with  Stanford  University  for  the  continuing  maintenance  of  the  integ- 
rity and  confidentiality  of  the  files.  He  designated  his  son,  Dr.  Fred- 
erick E.  Terman,  now  Provost  of  the  University,  and  his  long-time  col- 
league, Dr.  Quinn  McNemar,  Professor  of  Psychology  at  Stanford, 
as  the  official  custodians.  To  me,  he  delegated  the  administrative  re- 
sponsibility for  planning  such  continuing  research  operations  with  the 
group  as  may  seem  appropriate.  To  assist  in  this  enterprise,  he  assigned 
funds  from  his  estate  that  will  provide  partial  support  for  maintaining 
the  files  for  several  years. 

In  this  connection,  a  word  is  in  order.  Professor  Terman  began 
the  project  with  a  grant  from  the  Commonwealth  Fund  in  192L  Since 
then,  half  a  dozen  other  foundations  and  government  agencies  have 
contributed  financial  support.  The  total  expended  to  date  has  been 
approximately  a  quarter  million  dollars.  The  largest  single  donor  was 
Professor  Terman  himself,  who  provided  more  than  one-fifth  of  the 
total  cost  by  direct  gift.  In  addition,  he  and  his  co-authors  assigned  to 
the  study  all  royalties  from  their  publications  relating  to  the  study. 

And  so  we  reach  the  end  of  one  stage  in  this  extraordinary  research 
enterprise.  When  Professor  Terman  came  to  Stanford  in  1910,  as  an 
assistant  professor  of  education,  the  scientific  study  of  the  intellect  had 
scarcely  begun.  In  Paris,  Alfred  Binet  had  constructed  an  ingenious 
test  for  measuring  academic  ability  in  school  children;  at  Columbia 
University's  Teachers  College,  E.  L.  Thorndike  had  begun  work  on 
the  measurement  of  school  achievement.  But  it  remained  for  Lewis 
Terman  to  conceive  the  development  of  a  rigorous  intelligence  test 
that  could  select  the  ablest  children  and  thus  allow  society  to  focus  its 
full  educative  power  on  developing  their  potential.  In  1916,  Terman 
published  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  test.  In  the  last 
years  of  World  War  I,  he  was  a  prime  mover  in  the  construction  of  the 
Army  Alpha  and  Beta  tests.  After  the  war,  with  both  individual  and 
group  tests  available,  he  turned  to  the  problem  that  had  enthralled  him 
ever  since  his  graduate  student  days  at  Clark  University.  Although 
he  made  two  useful  excursions  into  other  fields — the  measurement  of 
masculinity-femininity  and  of  marital  happiness — his  main  concern  for 
the  rest  of  his  life  was  the  research  on  gifted  children. 

What  he  started,  now  remains  to  be  finished.  Science  is  cumulative 


FOREWORD  IX 

by  its  very  nature,  but  only  among  the  chroniclers  of  the  stars  and  the 
waters  have  such  prolonged  studies  of  individual  objects  been  made 
heretofore.  We  can  be  grateful  for  the  courage  and  vision  of  the  man 
who  finally  broke  the  barrier  of  the  limited  lifetime  alloted  to  any  one 
researcher,  and  got  under  way  a  study  of  man  that  will  encompass  the 
span  of  the  subjects'  lives,  not  just  those  of  the  researchers.  So  Pro- 
fessor Terman  has  bowed  out,  and  this  is  the  last  interim  report  in 
which  he  will  have  participated  personally.  Certainly  there  will  be  other 
replacements  in  the  list  of  our  research  personnel  before  the  final  vol- 
ume of  this  series  can  be  written.  On  actuarial  grounds,  there  is  con- 
siderable likelihood  that  the  last  of  Terman's  Gifted  Children  will  not 
have  yielded  his  last  report  to  the  files  before  the  year  2010 ! 

ROBERT  R.  SEARS 
Stanford  University 
January  10,  1959 


PREFACE 

This  is  the  fifth  volume  in  the  Genetic  Studies  of  Genius  series  and 
the  fourth  concerned  with  the  longitudinal  study  of  gifted  children 
initiated  by  Lewis  M.  Terman  in  1921.*  As  this  report  is  being  com- 
pleted in  the  summer  of  1958,  more  than  35  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
investigation  was  undertaken,  and  more  than  one  and  one-half  years 
have  passed  since  the  death  of  Dr.  Terman. 

His  imagination  and  vision,  his  fortitude  and  perseverance,  his  per- 
suasiveness and  charm — all  these  enabled  him  to  follow  the  careers  of 
this  same  group  of  subjects  continuously  for  three  and  one-half  decades 
until  his  death.  It  was  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the  human  qualities 
of  Dr.  Terman  that  his  study  of  gifted  children  grew  into  a  very  close 
personal  relationship  between  him  and  the  members  of  his  group — a 
relationship  that  has  been  maintained  throughout  the  years.  Always 
active  in  the  research,  he  was  able,  after  his  retirement  as  head  of  the 
Psychology  Department  in  1942,  to  give  it  his  full  attention.  His  affec- 
tion for  the  group  is  shown  in  the  warm  and  personal  tone  of  the  follow- 
up  letters,  even  the  "form"  letters,  which  bore  the  salutation  To  my 
gifted  "children"  the  quotation  marks  added  in  recognition  of  their 
adult  status.  It  happens  that  the  gifted  children  turned  out,  in  one  way 
or  another,  to  be  gifted  adults,  but  if  they  had  not,  Dr.  Terman's  affec- 
tion for  them  would  have  been  no  less.  He  repeatedly  expressed,  and 
not  infrequently  was  called  on  to  prove,  his  deep  personal  interest  in 
each  subject.  As  one  of  his  letters  accompanying  a  questionnaire  put  it, 
"although  the  published  reports  will  be  largely  statistical,  I  want  you 
to  know  that  each  of  you  is  to  me  a  real  person  and  not  just  another 
statistic." 

This  study  is  unique  in  a  number  of  ways :  the  many  years  it  has 
continued,  the  vast  amount  of  immensely  valuable  data  collected,  the 
zeal  with  which  the  inviolability  of  the  records  has  been  safeguarded 
and  the  confidences  of  the  subjects  respected,  the  enduring  friendship 
and  loyalty  of  the  group,  and  their  unparalleled  cooperation.  The  fact 
that  95  percent  of  the  group  are  still  actively  participating  in  the  study, 
a  striking  manifestation  of  the  rapport  between  investigator  and  sub- 

*  Vol.  II  of  the  series  by  Catharine  M.  Cox  was  titled  Early  ^Mental  Traits  of 
Three  Hundred  Geniuses5  and  is  a  collateral  study  dealing  with  Historical  geniuses. 


xii  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

jects,  strengthens  the  validity  of  the  findings.  The  debt  of  gratitude 
owed  the  subjects  and  their  parents  can  never  be  adequately  expressed. 

The  research  has  yielded  documentary  evidence  that  the  gifted 
child  is  far  more  apt  to  become  the  intellectually  superior,  vocationally 
successful,  well-adjusted  adult  than  will  the  average.  These  findings 
have  tremendous  importance  for  education  and  it  is  a  source  of  satis- 
faction to  know  that  this  study  has  contributed  to  the  present  interest 
in  better  educational  provisions  for  gifted  children  everywhere.  Dr. 
Terman's  work  stands  as  a  landmark  in  the  identification  of  superior 
mental  ability  and  the  factors  that  make  for  its  effective  utilization. 

Another  phenomenon  of  the  study  has  been  the  constancy  and  devo- 
tion of  those  who  have  collaborated  as  assistants  and  consultants — 
testimony  to  Dr.  Terman's  gift  for  friendship,  his  generosity  of  spirit, 
loyalty  and  understanding.  He  has  paid  tribute  in  the  previous  volumes 
of  this  series  to  those  who  assisted  him  in  the  various  phases  of  the 
study.  The  field  study  of  1950-52  was  carried  out  by  Nancy  Bayley, 
Helen  Marshall,  Alice  Leahy  Shea,  Ellen  Sullivan,  and  myself.  Dr. 
Marshall,  who  with  Dr.  Florence  Goodenough  conducted  the  original 
search  for  subjects  in  1921—22,  has  the  distinction  of  having  worked 
in  each  follow-up  investigation.  Dr.  Bayley  and  Dr.  Sullivan  had  both 
assisted  in  the  follow-up  of  1939-40  and  Dr.  Shea  had  assisted  in  the 
field  study  of  1927-28.  In  an  investigation  in  which  success  depends 
so  much  on  personal  relationships,  the  role  of  the  field  worker  is  an 
important  one,  and  the  study  was  fortunate  that  such  experienced  and 
highly  qualified  persons  as  Dr.  Bayley,  Dr.  Marshall,  Dr.  Sullivan,  and 
Dr.  Shea  were  willing  to  take  leaves  of  absence  from  their  regular  posi- 
tions to  assist  in  these  follow-up  studies. 

Although  I  did  not  have  the  privilege  of  working  on  the  initial  in- 
vestigation of  1921-22, 1  had  known  Dr.  Terman  even  before  that  date 
in  my  student  days.  When  he  engaged  me  as  one  of  his  assistants  in 
1927  to  help  with  the  first  field  follow-up  of  the  gifted  group,  it  was 
the  beginning  of  a  long  and  close  association.  It  is  difficult  to  express 
or  interpret  in  words  the  many  intangible  effects  of  this  association. 
The  inspiration,  the  intellectual  stimulation,  the  new  frontiers  explored, 
the  wise  counsel,  the  warm  friendship — all  these  were  among  the  re- 
wards of  working  with  such  a  man. 

Among  those  to  whom  the  more  recent  phases  of  the  study  owe 
much  are  Dr.  Olga  W.  McNemar,  who  assisted  in  the  data  analysis  and 
preparation  of  reports  between  1943  and  1949  and  who  was  the  chief 


PREFACE  Xlll 

collaborator  with  Dr.  Terman  in  a  study  of  scientists  and  nonscientists 
in  the  gifted  group  "which  -was  made  in  1951—52.  Dr.  Quinn  Me- 
Nemar,  who  has  been  close  to  all  of  Dr.  Terman's  researches,  has  served 
as  consultant  on  the  gifted  study  for  many  years  and  has  contributed 
constructive  help  on  statistical  problems  growing  out  of  the  research. 

Dr.  Marian  Ballin  gave  important  statistical  help  in  preparing"  the 
data  for  this  volume. 

Mrs.  Babette  Doyle,  between  the  years  1947  and  1956,  and  Mrs. 
Shiela  Buckholtz,  from  1952  to  the  present,  have  each  rendered  in- 
valuable assistance  in  the  dual  capacity  of  secretary  and  research  assist- 
ant. In  addition  I  am  personally  indebted  to  each  for  her  help  in  the 
preparation  of  this  manuscript  through  careful  reading,  criticism,  and 
suggestions  for  improvement. 

Finally,  I  am  profoundly  grateful  to  Dr.  Robert  Sears  not  only  for 
his  critical  reading  of  the  manuscript  but  also  for  his  encouragement 
and  faith  -when,  with  the  loss  of  Dr.  Terman,  the  responsibility  for 
the  completion  of  this  volume  fell  to  me.  I  have  tried  to  make  it  as 
nearly  as  possible  the  book  that  Dr.  Terman  himself  would  have  written. 
Lacking  his  grace  and  ease  of  expression  as  well  as  his  wisdom  and 
experience,  I  could  not  hope  to  succeed  entirely.  To  whatever  extent 
the  goal  has  been  achieved,  special  credit  is  due  Mrs.  Buckholtz,  Mrs. 
Doyle,  and  Dr.  Sears. 

MELITA  H.  ODEN 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  OF  GIFTED 

CHILDREN 1 

II.     THE  INTERMEDIATE  YEARS 17 

III.  THE  GROUP  REACHES  MID-LIFE 23 

IV.  MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT     .  28 
V.     INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE 52 

VI.    THE  MATTER  OF  SCHOOLING 64 

VII.     THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER 73 

VIII.      AVOCATIONAL  AND   OTHER  INTERESTS 107 

IX.  SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  ....  119 

X.  MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND  OFFSPRING 132 

XI.  THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE 143 

REFERENCES  CITED 153 

APPENDIX 157 

INDEX 181 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN 
STUDY  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 


Many  philosophers  and  scientists  from  Plato  and  Aristotle  to  the 
present  day  have  recognized  that  a  nation's  resources  of  superior  talent 
are  the  most  precious  it  can  have.  A  number  of  factors,  however,  have 
operated  to  postpone  until  recent  years  the  inauguration  of  research  in 
this  field.  Among  these  are :  ( 1 )  the  influence  of  long-current  beliefs 
regarding  the  essential  nature  of  the  genius,  long  regarded  as  qualita- 
tively set  off  from  the  rest  of  mankind  and  not  to  be  explained  by  the 
natural  laws  of  human  behavior ;  (2)  the  widespread  superstition  that 
intellectual  precocity  is  pathological;  and  (3)  the  growth  of  pseudo- 
democratic  sentiments  that  have  tended  to  encourage  attitudes  unfavor- 
able to  a  just  appreciation  of  individual  differences  in  human  endow- 
ment. 

The  senior  author's  first  exploration  into  the  problems  posed  by 
intellectual  differences  occurred  over  a  half-century  ago  when,  as  a 
graduate  student,  he  made  an  experimental  study  of  two  small  con- 
trasting groups  of  bright  and  dull  children.34*  His  interest  was  height- 
ened a  few  years  later  when,  in  standardizing  the  1916  Stanford-Binet 
Intelligence  Scale,  he  located  and  studied  about  a  hundred  children 
whose  IQ's  were  above  130.  He  then  decided  to  launch,  at  the  first 
opportunity,  a  la£g£-scalemmY€Stig-q -h'nti  Jaij^ie^h^ 
personality gaits  ofjjarge  g^^ 

by  tallow-up  studt^^  such  children  tend 

tolSecome.  It  was  obvious  that  no  intelligent  program  for  training  the 
gifted  child  could  be  laid  down  until  the  answers  to  these  questions 
had  been  found. 

In  1921  a  generous  grant  from  the  Commonwealth  Fund  of  New 
York  City  made  possible  the  realization  of  this  ambition.  The  project 
as  outlined  called  for  the  sifting  of  a  school  population  of  a  quarter- 

*  Numerals  refer  to  numbered  and  alphabetically  arranged  references  on  pages 
153  ff. 


2  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

million  in  order  to  locate  a  thousand  or  more  of  highest  IQ.  The  sub- 
jects thus  selected  were  to  be  given  a  variety  of  psychological,  physical, 
and  scholastic  tests  and  were  then  to  be  followed  as  far  as  possible  into 
adult  life.  The  investigation  was  expected  to  tell  us  (1)  what  intel- 
lectually superior  children  are  like  as  children ;  (2)  how  well  they  turn 
out;  and  (3)  what  are  some  of  the  factors  that  influence  their  later 
achievement. 

THE  SELECTION  OF  SUBJECTS 

The  problem  was  to  discover  in  the  schools  of  California  a  thou- 
sand or  more  subjects  with  IQ's  that  would  place  them  well  within  the 
highest  one  percent  of  the  school  population.  For  financial  reasons  it 
was  not  possible  to  give  mental  tests  to  the  entire  school  population. 
Instead,  the  search  was  limited  chiefly  to  the  larger  and  medium-sized 
urban  areas.  The  following  procedures  were  used  to  identify  the  chil- 
dren of  highest  IQ  in  the  areas  surveyed. 

In  grades  three  to  eight  each  classroom  teacher  filled  out  a  blank 
which  called  for  the  name  of  the  brightest  child  in  the  room,  the  second 
brightest,  the  third  brightest,  and  the  youngest.  The  children  thus 
nominated  in  a  particular  school  building  were  then  brought  together 
and  given  a  group  intelligence  test  (National  Intelligence  Test,  Scale 
B).  Those  who  scored  promisingly  high  on  the  group  test  were  given 
an  individual  examination  on  the  Stanford-Binet  test.  In  grades  below 
the  third,  only  the  Stanford-Binet  test  was  given  to  those  nominated 
by  the  teacher,  since  no  suitable  group  test  was  available  at  that  time 
for  younger  children.  In  high  schools  the  selection  of  subjects  was 
based  on  the  Terman  Group  Test  scores  of  students  nominated  by  the 
teachers  as  being  among  the  brightest  in  their  respective  classes. 

Checks  made  on  the  method  of  selection  indicated  that  the  method 
used  was  identifying  close  to  90  percent  of  all  who  could  have  qualified. 
The  proportion  was  high  enough  to  insure  that  the  group  selected  for 
study  constituted  a  reasonably  unbiased  sampling  and  that  whatever 
traits  were  typical  of  these  children  would  be  reasonably  typical  of  gifted 
children  in  any  comparable  school  population.  The  original  criterion 
for  inclusion  for  the  Binet-tested  subjects  was  an  IQ  of  140  or  above, 
but  for  various  reasons  sixty-five  subjects  were  included  in  the  IQ 
range  of  135  to  139.  Most  of  those  below  140  IQ  were  either  siblings 
of  subjects  already  admitted  to  the  group  or  were  older  subjects  whose 
scores  were  deemed  to  be  spuriously  low  because  of  insufficient  top  in 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  3 

the  1916  Stanford-Binet.  The  standard  set  was  purely  arbitrary  and 
was  intended  to  insure  that  the  subjects  included  for  study  should  be 
in  the  highest  1  percent  of  the  school  population  in  general  intelligence 
as  measured  by  the  test  used.  Its  choice  was  not  based  on  any  assump- 
tion that  children  above  this  IQ  level  are  potential  geniuses.  The  stand- 
ards for  admission  on  the  Terman  Group  Test  and  other  group  tests 
also  required  the  subject  to  score  within  the  top  1  percent  of  the  general 
school  population  on  which  the  norms  were  established. 

The  nature  and  results  of  the  early  stages  of  the  investigation  have 
been  fully  described  in  an  earlier  publication39  and  will  be  summarized 
in  the  following  pages. 

COMPOSITION  OF  THE  GROUP 

The  gifted  subjects  whose  careers  we  have  followed  number,  in  all, 
1,528  (857  males  and  671  females).  This  figure  includes  a  few  who 
were  selected  before  1921,  and  58  who  were  not  selected  until  the  field 
study  of  1927-28.  These  58  were  siblings  of  previously  selected  sub- 
jects who  were  too  young  to  test  at  the  time  of  the  main  search  for 
subjects  in  1921-22. 

The  Binet-tested  group  made  up  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  total 
and  included  1,070  subjects  (577  boys  and  493  girls).  Selected  by  the 
Terman  Group  Test  given  in  high  schools  were  428  subjects  (265  boys 
and  163  girls).  The  remaining  30  subjects  were  chosen  on  the  basis 
of  scores  on  the  National  Intelligence  Test  or  the  Army  Alpha  Test.* 
The  average  age  of  the  total  group  at  the  time  of  selection  was  1 1  years ; 
the  Binet-tested  subjects  averaged  9.7  years  and  those  qualifying  on 
a  group  test,  15.2  years. 

The  mean  IQ  of  subjects  who  were  given  the  Stanford-Binet  was 
151 .5  for  the  boys,  150.4  for  the  girls,  and  151 .0  for  the  sexes  com- 
bined. The  IQ  range  was  from  135  to  200  with  77  subjects  scoring 
at  IQ  170  or  higher.  The  mean  IQ  of  high-school  subjects  tested  by 
the  Terman  Group  Test  was  142.6  and  the  range  of  IQ  was  from 
135  to  169.  These  figures,  however,  were  estimates  based  upon  norms 
which  were  inadequate  and  were  perhaps  8  or  10  IQ  points  too  low. 
Later  follow-up  of  the  high-school  subjects  indicated  that  they  were 
as  highly  selected  as  the  Binet-tested  group. 

*  This  group  includes  24  pre-high-school  pupils  with  National  Intelligence  Test 
scores  and  6  high-school  students  with  Army  Alpha  Test  scores  who  were  not  tested 
in  the  formal  search  for  subjects,  but  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  study  by 
their  schools  and  included  because  of  their  very  high  test  scores. 


4  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

The  sex  ratio  among  the  Binet-tested  subjects  was  approximately 
116  boys  to  100  girls.  The  much  higher  sex  ratio  for  the  high-school 
subjects— roughly  160  boys  to  100  girls— is  probably  due  to  the  less 
systematic  procedures  used  in  locating  gifted  subjects  in  the  high 
schools.  A  sex  ratio  of  116  males  to  100  females  may  be  fully  accounted 
for  by  the  greater  variability  of  males.  McNemar  and  Terman,27  in  a 
survey  of  sex  differences  on  variability  in -such  tests  as  the  Stanford- 
Binet,  the  National  Intelligence  Tests,  the  Pressey  Group  Test,  and 
Thorndike's  CAVD  test,  found  that  29  of  33  sex  comparisons  based 
on  age  groupings  showed  greater  variability  of  boys.  In  Scotland,  874 
of  875  children  who  were  born  on  four  particular  days  of  the  calendar 
year  1926,  and  were  still  living  in  1936,  were  given  a  Stanford-Binet 
test  at  the  age  of  ten  years.  The  S.D.  of  the  IQ  distribution  for  this 
perfect  sample  was  IS  .9  for  boys  and  15 .2  for  girls — a  difference  suf- 
ficient to  give  a  sex  ratio  of  134  boys  to  100  girls  scoring  as  high  as 
140  IQ. 

KINDS  OF  INFORMATION  OBTAINED 

Besides  the  intelligence  test  scores  on  which  the  selection  of  sub- 
jects was  based,  information  of  many  different  kinds  was  obtained. 
The  chief  sources  were  as  follows. 

1.  A  twelve-page  Home  Information  Blank  was  filled  out  by  the 
child's  parents.  This  called  for  information  on  developmental  case  his- 
tory, circumstances  of  birth,  early  feeding,  ages  of  walking  and  talking, 
illnesses,  nervous  symptoms,  home  training,  indications  of  intelligence, 
age  of  learning  to  read,  reading  habits,  educational  and  occupational 
achievement  of  parents,  genealogical  records,  and  ratings  on  twenty- 
five  traits. 

2.  An  eight-page  School  Information  Blank  was  filled  out  by  the 
child's  teacher.    The  blank  called  for  information  on  school  health 
records,  quality  of  school  work  in  each  separate  subject,  evidence  of 
superior  ability,  amount  and  kinds  of  reading,  nervous  symptoms,  social 
adjustment,  and  ratings  on  the  same  twenty-five  traits  that  were  rated 
by  the  parents.  This  information  was  also  obtained  for  a  control  group 
of  527  unselected  school  children. 

3.  A  one-hour  medical  examination  was  given  to  783  gifted  sub- 
jects^ The  examination  covered  vision,  hearing,  nutrition,  posture, 
teeth,  heart,  lungs,  genitals,  glandular  disorders,  blood  pressure  and 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  5 

hemoglobin  tests,  pulse  and  respiration  rates,  urine  tests,  and  neuro- 
logical conditions. 

4.  Thirty-seven  anthropometrical  measurements  were  made  of 
nearly  600  gifted  subjects. 

5.  A  three-hour  battery  of  achievement  tests  was  given  to  550  gifted 
subjects  in  grades  two  to  eight.   The  battery  covered  reading,  arith- 
metical computation,  arithmetical  reasoning,  language  usage,  spelling, 
science  information,  language  and  literature  information,  history  and 
civics  information,  and  art  information.  The  same  tests  were  given  to 
a  large  control  group  of  unselected  subjects. 

6.  A  four-page  Interest  Blank  was  filled  out  by  all  the  gifted  sub- 
jects who  were  able  to  read  and  write  and  by  a  large  control  group  of 
unselected  subjects.  The  blank  called  for  information  on  occupational 
preferences,  reading  interests,  school-subject  interests,  relative  diffi- 
culty of  school  subjects,  number  and  size  of  collections,  and  various 
activities  and  accomplishments. 

7.  A  record  of  all  books  read  over  a  period  of  two  months  was 
obtained  from  some  550  gifted  subjects  and  from  a  control  group  of 
808  unselected  children.  Each  book  read  was  rated  by  the  child  for 
degree  of  interest. 

8.  A  test  of  play  interest,  play  practice,  and  play  information  was 
given  to  all  the  gifted  subjects  above  grade  two,  and  to  a  control  group 
of  nearly  500  unselected  children.  This  test  yielded  scores  on  mascu- 
linity, maturity,  and  sociability  of  interests,  and  a  play  information 
quotient. 

9.  A  battery  of  seven  character  tests  was  given  to  550  gifted  sub- 
jects and  533  unselected  children  of  a  control  group.  These  included 
two  tests  of  overstatement ;  three  tests  of  questionable  interests,  prefer- 
ences, and  attitudes;  a  test  of  trustworthiness  under  temptation  to 
cheat ;  and  a  test  of  emotional  stability. 

FAMILY  BACKGROUND 

All  racial  elements  in  the  areas  covered  were  represented  in  the 
group,  including  Orientals,  Mexicans,  and  Negroes.  They  came  from 
all  kinds  of  homes,  from  the  poorest  to  the  best,  but  the  majority  were 
the  offspring  of  intellectually  superior  parents.  The  tendency  to  supe- 
riority in  the  social  and  cultural  background  of  the  subjects  is  shown 
in  many  ways.  Nearly  a  third  of  the  fathers  as  of  1922  were  iti  pro- 


6  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

f  essionai  occupations,  and  less  than  7  percent  in  semiskilled  or  unskilled 
work.  The  mean  amount  of  schooling  of  both  fathers  and  mothers  was 
approximately  12  grades,  or  about  four  grades  more  than  the  average 
person  of  their  generation  in  the  United  States.  A  third  of  the  fathers 
and  15.5  percent  of  the  mothers  had  graduated  from  college.  Twenty- 
eight  fathers  and  six  mothers  had  taken  a  Ph.D.  degree— numbers 
which  were  considerably  increased  later.  By  1940  the  number  of  par- 
ents listed  in  Who's  Who  in  America  were  44  fathers  and  3  mothers. 

The  number  of  books  in  the  parents'  homes,  as  estimated  by  the  field 
assistants,  ranged  from  almost  none  to  6,000,  with  one  home  out  of  six 
having  500  or  more.  The  median  family  income  during  1921  for  a  ran- 
dom sample  of  170  families  in  the  group  was  $3,333 ;  the  average  for 
the  sample  was  $4,705.  Only  4 . 4  percent  reported  $1 ,500  or  less,  while 
14 . 1  percent  reported  $8,500  or  more,  and  4 . 1  percent  reported  $12,500 
or  more.  The  field  assistants  rated  a  random  sample  of  574  homes  on 
the  Whittier  Scale  for  Grading  Home  Conditions.  Rating  superior  to 
very  superior  were  60.3  percent,  as  contrasted  with  9.5  percent  rating 
inferior  to  very  inferior. 

Additional  evidence  of  the  superiority  of  family  background  is  the 
fact  that  182  of  the  families  contributed  two  or  more  subjects  to  the 
group.  Among  these  were  2  families  of  five  children,  all  of  whom  quali- 
fied for  the  gifted  group,  10  families  each  of  whom  contributed  four 
children  to  the  group,  and  20  families  who  contributed  three  children 
each  to  the  group.  There  were  also  28  families  whose  children,  often 
two  or  more  in  a  family,  are  first  cousins.  Since  not  more  than  one 
child  in  a  hundred  of  the  general  school  population  could  qualify  for 
the  group,  the  likelihood  that  two  such  children  would  be  found  in  one 
family  would  be  almost  infinitesimal  by  the  laws  of  pure  chance.  That 
so  many  families  contributed  two  or  more  children  to  the  group  means 
that  something  besides  chance  was  operating,  such  as  common  ancestry, 
common  environment,  or,  more  probably,  both  of  these  influences. 

PHYSIQUE  AND  HEALTH  OF  GIFTED  CHILDREN 

Anthropometric  measurements  were  made  of  a  random  gifted  group 
of  312  boys  and  282  girls,  all  but  a  few  of  whom  were  between  the  ages 
of  7  and  14.  The  results  showed  that  the  gifted  children  as  a  group  ex- 
ceeded the  best  standards  at  that  time  for  American-born  children  in 
growth  status  as  indicated  by  both  height  and  weight,  and  that  they 
were  also  above  the  established  norms  for  unselected  children  in  Cali- 
fornia. 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  / 

Information  on  physical  history  was  obtained  from  parents  and 
teachers  for  nearly  all  the  subjects,  and  information  on  health  history 
was  also*  obtained  from  the  teachers  for  a  control  group  of  527  unselected 
children  enrolled  in  the  classes  attended  by  members  of  the  gifted  group. 
The  mean  birth  weight  reported  by  the  mothers  of  the  gifted  was  about 
three-quarters  of  a  pound  above  the  norm  according  to  the  commonly 
accepted  standards  of  the  time.  About  17  percent  of  male  births  and  12 
percent  of  female  births  involved  instrumental  deliveries ;  these  rather 
high  figures  probably  reflect  the  quality  of  obstetrical  service  obtained 
by  parents  of  superior  intelligence  and  above-average  income.  The  pro- 
portion of  breast  feeding  was  considerably  in  excess  of  the  figures  re- 
ported by  Woodbury44  for  the  general  population.  The  reported  ages 
of  learning  to  walk  averaged  about  a  month  less,  and  the  age  of  learning 
to  talk  about  three  and  one-half  months  less,  than  the  mean  ages  re- 
ported for  unselected  children.  Among  the  older  children,  the  onset  of 
puberty,  as  indicated  by  change  of  voice  in  boys  and  by  first  menstrua- 
tion of  girls  was,  on  the  average,  earlier  than  for  children  of  the  gen- 
eral population.  About  a  third  of  the  gifted  subjects  had  suffered  one 
or  more  accidents,  8  percent  having  had  bone  fractures.  The  number 
of  surgical  operations  averaged  one  per  child,  over  half  of  which  were 
for  adenoids  or  tonsils. 

The  School  Information  Blank  filled  out  by  teachers  of  the  gifted 
subjects,  and  also  for  a  control  group  attending  the  same  classes,  fur- 
nished interesting  comparative  data.  These  reports  indicate  that  "fre- 
quent headaches"  were  only  half  as  common  among  the  gifted  as  among 
the  controls,  "poor  nutrition/*  a  third  as  common,  "marked"  or  "ex- 
treme" mouth-breathing  two-thirds  as  common,  and  defective  hearing 
half  as  common.  The  two  groups  did  not  differ  significantly  with  re- 
spect to  frequency  of  colds,  "excessive  timidity,"  or  "tendency  to 
worry,"  but  "nervousness"  was  reported  for  20  percent  fewer  gifted 
than  controls. 

The  medical  examination  was  given  to  783  of  the  gifted  subjects 
who  lived  in  or  near  Los  Angeles  or  the  San  Francisco  Bay  area.  The 
examinations  were  made  by  two  experienced  child  specialists,  both  of 
whom  had  had  two  years  of  postgraduate  work  in  the  department  of 
pediatrics  at  the  University  of  California  Medical  School.  All  exami- 
nations -were  made  in  the  physician's  office,  to  which  the  child  was 
brought  by  a  parent,  usually  the  mother.  The  incidence  of  physical 
defects  and  abnormal  conditions  of  almost  every  kind  was  below  that 
usually  reported  by  school  physicians  in  the  best  medical  surveys  of 


8  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

school  populations  In  the  United  States.  This  is  certainly  true  for  de- 
fects of  hearing  and  vision,  obstructed  breathing,  dental  caries,  mal- 
nutrition, postural  defects,  abnormal  conditions  of  the  heart  or  kidneys, 
enlargement  of  the  bronchial  glands,  and  tuberculosis.  The  sleep  and 
dietary  regimes  of  the  group  as  a  whole  were  found  to  be  definitely 
superior.  The  incidence  of  nervous  habits,  tics,  and  stuttering  was 
about  the  same  as  for  the  generality  of  children  of  corresponding  age. 
The  examining  physicians,  notwithstanding  occasional  disagreement  in 
their  results,  were  in  complete  accord  in  the  belief  that,  on  the  whole, 
the  gifted  children  of  this  group  were  physically  superior  to  unselected 
children. 

The  combined  results  of  the  medical  examinations  and  the  physical 
measurements  provide  a  striking  contrast  to  the  popular  stereotype  of 
the  child  prodigy  so  commonly  depicted  as  a  pathetic  creature,  over- 
serious  and  undersized,  sickly,  hollow-chested,  stoop-shouldered, 
clumsy,  nervously  tense,  and  bespectacled.  There  are  gifted  children 
who  bear  some  resemblance  to  this  stereotype,  but  the  truth  is  that 
almost  every  element  in  the  picture,  except  the  last,  is  less  characteristic 
of  the  gifted  child  than  of  the  mentally  average. 

EDUCATIONAL  HISTORY 

The  average  age  on  entering  school  (above  kindergarten)  was  six 
and  a  quarter  years.  Low  first  grade  was  skipped  by  21  percent  of  the 
children,  and  the  entire  first  grade  by  10  percent.  The  average  progress 
quotient  for  the  entire  gifted  group  was  114,  which  means  that  the  aver- 
age child  was  accelerated  to  the  extent  of  14  percent  of  his  age.  Ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  their  teachers,  the  average  gifted  child 
merited  additional  promotion  beyond  where  he  was  by  1 .3  half -grades. 
"Strong"  liking  for  school  was  reported  by  parents  for  54  percent  of 
boys  and  70  percent  of  girls,  as  compared  to  only  5  percent  of  the  sexes 
combined  for  whom  parents  reported  either  "slight  liking"  or  "posi- 
tive dislike/* 

Nearly  half  of  the  children  learned  to  read  before  starting  to  school ; 
20  percent  did  so  before  the  age  of  five  years  and  6  percent  before  four 
years.  Other  early  indications  of  superior  intelligence  most  often  men- 
tioned by  parents  were  quick  understanding,  insatiable  curiosity,  ex- 
tensive information,  retentive  memory,  large  vocabulary,  and  unusual 
interest  in  number  relations,  atlases,  and  encyclopedias. 

The  Stanford  Achievement  Tests  were  given  in  the  spring  of  1922 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  9 

to  a  random  group  of  565  gifted  children  in  grades  below  the  ninth. 
The  tests  provided  separate  scores  for  reading,  computation,  arithmet- 
ical reasoning,  language  usage,  spelling,  and  four  different  fields  of 
information.  The  average  achievement  quotient  for  the  school  subjects 
combined  was  144,  and  only  one  quotient  in  six  was  as  low  as  130,  The 
difference  of  30  quotient  points  between  the  average  achievement  quo- 
tient of  144  and  the  average  progress  quotient  of  114  (noted  above), 
means  that  the  average  gifted  child  was  retarded  in  grade  placement  by 
30  percent  of  his  age  below  the  level  of  achievement  which  he  had 
already  reached.  More  than  half  of  those  tested  had  mastered  the  school 
curriculum  to  a  point  two  full  grades  beyond  the  one  in  which  they  were 
enrolled,  and  some  of  them  as  much  as  three  or  four  grades  beyond. 
For  the  fields  of  subject  matter  covered  by  our  tests,  the  superiority 
of  the  gifted  subjects  over  unselected  children  was  greatest  in  reading, 
arithmetical  reasoning,  and  information ;  it  was  least  in  computation  and 
spelling. 

Another  question  answered  by  the  achievement  tests  was  whether 
the  gifted  child  tends  to  be  more  one-sided  in  his  abilities  than  the  aver- 
age child,  as  so  many  people  believe  to  be  the  case.  Analysis  of  the 
subject-matter  achievement  quotients  of  the  gifted  group  as  compared 
to  a  group  of  unselected  children  shows  that  the  amount  of  unevenness 
in  subject-matter  profiles  of  the  gifted  does  not  differ  significantly  from 
that  shown  by  unselected  children. 

CHILDHOOD  INTERESTS  AND  PREOCCUPATIONS 

The  four-page  Interest  Blank  was  filled  out  by  all  of  the  gifted  who 
were  old  enough  to  read,  and  also  by  a  control  group  of  unselected  chil- 
dren. In  a  long  list  of  school  subjects  the  children  were  asked  to  rate 
on  a  five-point  scale  their  liking  for  each  of  the  school  subjects  they 
had  studied.  We  will  consider  here  only  the  ratings  given  by  children 
of  ages  11  to  13,  inclusive.  Analysis  of  the  ratings  showed  that  gifted 
children  were  more  interested  than  were  unselected  children  in  school 
subjects  which  are  most  abstract,  and  somewhat  less  interested  in 
the  "practical"  subjects.  Literature,  debating,  dramatics,  and  history 
were  rated  much  more  interesting  by  the  gifted,  while  penmanship, 
manual  training,  drawing,  and  painting  were  rated  somewhat  higher  by 
the  control  group.  When  cross-sex  comparisons  were  made,  it  was 
found  that  in  their  scholastic  interests  gifted  girls  resembled  gifted  boys 
far  more  closely  than  they  resembled  control  girls. 


10  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

In  the  same  Interest  Blank  was  a  list  of  125  occupations  and  the 
child  was  told  to  place  one  cross  before  each  occupation  he  might  pos- 
sibly wish  to  follow  and  two  crosses  before  his  one  first  choice.  The  data 
were  treated  for  ages  8  to  13  for  both  gifted  and  control  groups.  Analy- 
sis of  the  data  revealed  that  the  gifted  showed  greater  preference  for 
professional  and  semiprofessional  occupations,  and  the  control  group 
greater  preference  for  mechanical  and  clerical  occupations  and  for 
athletics. 

The  test  of  interest  in  90  plays,  games,  and  other  activities  was  de- 
signed in  such  a  way  as  to  yield  a  preference  score  on  each  of  the  90 
items  for  each  age  and  sex  group  of  gifted  and  control  subjects.  Com- 
parison of  boys  and  girls  in  the  control  group  with  respect  to  kinds  of 
plays  and  games  preferred  made  it  possible  to  derive  a  masculinity- 
femininity  index  for  each  child.  Similarly,  by  comparison  of  prefer- 
ences expressed  at  different  ages  in  the  control  group,  an  index  of  inter- 
est maturity  was  derived  for  each  child.  Finally,  an  index  of  sociabil- 
ity was  computed  which  was  based  on  the  extent  of  a  child's  preference 
for  plays  and  games  that  involve  social  participation  and  social  organ- 
ization. Comparison  of  the  gifted  and  control  (i.e.,  unselected)  children 
on  these  three  indices  yielded  the  following  conclusions :  ( 1 )  Gifted  boys 
tended  to  be  somewhat  more  masculine  in  their  play  interests  than  con- 
trol boys  at  all  ages  from  8  to  12  years,  after  which  there  was  little  dif- 
ference. Gifted  and  control  girls  did  not  differ  significantly  at  ages  8, 
9,  and  10,  but  at  ages  11,  12,  and  13  the  gifted  girls  tended  to  be  more 
masculine.  (2)  Comparisons  of  maturity  indices  for  gifted  and  control 
subjects  showed  greater  maturity  of  play  interests  for  the  gifted  of  both 
sexes  at  all  age  levels ;  i.e.,  they  were  ahead  of  their  years  in  play  inter- 
ests. (3)  Comparisons  on  sociability  indices  showed  gifted  subjects 
of  both  sexes  significantly  below  control  subjects  at  all  ages ;  i.e.,  age  for 
age  the  control  subjects  had  somewhat  more  interest  than  gifted  sub- 
jects in  plays  that  involve  social  participation.  Much  of  this  difference 
can  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  gifted  child  is  more  self-suffi- 
cient and  thus  more  able  to  amuse  himself. 

A  test  of  play  information  (composed  of  123  items  that  could  be 
scored  objectively)  was  devised  which  yielded  a  play  information  quo- 
tient based  on  age  norms  for  unselected  children.  The  average  play 
information  quotient  of  the  gifted  was  137,  and  only  3  percent  of  the 
group  were  below  100.  The  average  gifted  child  of  9  years  had  acquired 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  11 

more  factual  information  about  plays  and  games  than  the  average  un- 
selected  child  of  12  years. 

Information  on  the  amount  and  kind  of  reading  done  was  obtained 
by  having  511  gifted  children  and  808  children  of  a  control  group  keep 
a  record  of  each  book  read  during  a  period  of  two  months.  The  records 
revealed  that  the  average  gifted  child  was  reading  about  10  books  in 
two  months  by  age  7,  and  IS  books  by  age  11,  with  little  increase  there- 
after. Few  of  the  control  group  read  any  books  below  8  years,  and  after 
8  years  the  average  number  read  in  two  months  was  less  than  half  that 
of  the  gifted.  Classification  of  the  books  read  showed  the  gifted  children 
reading  over  a  considerably  wider  range  than  the  control  children.  The 
gifted,  much  more  often  than  the  control  group,  preferred  science,  his- 
tory, biography,  travel,  poetry,  drama,  and  informational  fiction. 

CHARACTER  TESTS 

Do  children  of  superior  intelligence  tend  to  be  superior  also  in  char- 
acter traits  ?  An  answer  to  this  question  was  sought  by  giving  a  battery 
of  seven  character  tests  to  a  random  group  of  532  gifted  children  aged 
7  to  14  years  and  to  a  control  group  of  533  unselected  children  aged  10 
to  14  years.  The  battery  included  two  tests  of  the  tendency  to  overstate 
in  reporting  experience  and  knowledge ;  three  tests  of  the  wholesome- 
ness  of  preferences  and  attitudes  (reading  preferences,  character  pref- 
erences, and  social  attitudes,  respectively) ;  a  test  of  cheating  under 
circumstances  that  offered  considerable  temptation ;  and  a  test  of  emo- 
tional stability.  The  tests  were  so  devised  that  they  could  be  scored 
objectively  and  could  be  given  to  the  subjects  in  groups.  The  nature 
of  the  several  tests  is  described  in  an  earlier  report.39 

The  tests  of  cheating  and  emotional  stability  were  selected  as  among 
the  best  of  a  battery  of  character  tests  used  by  Cady  ;4  the  others  were 
all  from  a  battery  devised  by  Raubenheimer.29  Both  of  these  batteries 
had  been  found  to  yield  satisfactory  reliability  coefficients  and  to  dis- 
criminate rather  effectively  between  boys  of  known  delinquent  tenden- 
cies and  boys  of  superior  social  and  behavioral  adjustment.  Total 
scores  of  the  seven  character  tests  have  a  reliability  of  .80  to  .85 
and  a  validity  (based  on  discrimination  between  delinquent  and  well- 
adjusted  boys  of  ages  12  to  14)  of  approximately  .60.  Whether  the 
validity  is  equally  high  for  girls  is  not  known. 

The  results  of  the  character  tests  were  decisive ;  the  gifted  group 


12  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

scored  "better"  than  the  control  group  on  every  subtest  at  every  age 
from  ten  to  fourteen.  Below  the  age  of  ten  no  comparison  was  possible 
because  the  control  subjects  below  this  age  were  not  sufficiently  liter- 
ate to  take  the  tests.  Table  1  shows,  for  the  sexes  separately,  the  pro- 
portion of  gifted  subjects  who  equaled  or  surpassed  the  mean  of  the 
control  group  on  each  subtest  and  on  the  total  score  for  ages  ten  to  four- 
teen combined. 

TABLE  1 

PROPORTION  OF  GIFTED  SUBJECTS  WHO  EQUALED  OR  SURPASSED 

THE  MEAN  OF  CONTROL  SUBJECTS  IN  EACH  OF  SEVEN 

CHARACTER  TESTS  AND  IN  TOTAL  SCORE 

Boys  Girls 

Tests  •      %  % 

1.  Overstatement  A    57     "  59 

2.  Overstatement  B    < 63  ,  73 

~  3.  Book  preferences 74  76 

4.  Character  preferences  77  .          81 

5.  Social  attitudes  -.-. 86                     83 

6.  Cheating  tests  68                     61      ,    . 

7.  Emotional  stability 67                     75 

Total  SQore  86  84 

The  question  may~be  raised  whether  a  part  of  the  superiority  is 
spurious  because  of  the  possibility  that  bright  subjects  would  be  more 
likely  to*  divine  the  purpose  of  the  tests  and  so  respond  in  the  socially 
approved  way.  This  factor,  if  present  at  all,  would  be  most  likely  to 
influence  scores  on  reading  preferences^  character  preferences,  social 
attitudes,  and  emotional  instability.  It  is  believed  hardly  to  have  entered 
at  all  in  the  cheating  test  (disguised  as  a  test  of  motor  accuracy)  or  in 
the  two  overstatement  tests,  all  three  of  which  gave  highly  reliable  dif- 
ferences between  the  gifted  and  control  groups.  In  his  study  of  delin- 
cpient  and  well-adjusted  boys,  Raubenheimer29  questioned  his  subjects 
after  they  had  completed  the  tests,  to  find  out  whether  they  had  guessed 
their  purpose.  Less  than  5  percent  of  his  subjects  (all.  thirteen  years 
old)  guessed  correctly. 

TRAIT  RATINGS 

The  plan  of  trait  rating  used  with  the  gifted  subjects  was  the  result 
of  several  years'  experience  in  trying  out  various  rating  schemes  with 
children  of  average  and  superior  ability.  The  traits  finally  selected  for 
rating  numbered  25  and  can  be  classified  in  the  following  categories : 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMA1ST  STUDY  13 

intellectual  (4),  volitional  (4),  moral  (4),  emotional  (3),  aesthetic  (2), 
physical  (2),  social;  (5),  and  the  single  trait,  mechanical  ability.  The 
individual  traits  are  listed  by  category  in  Table  2.  However,  in  the 
blanks  in  which  the  ratings  were  made,  the  traits  were  presented  in  a 
mixed  order. 

A  cross-on-line  technique  was  used  in  getting  the  rating  for  each 
trait  and  the  ratings  were  scored  in  intervals  of  1  to  13.  Nearly  all  of 
the  gifted  subjects  were  rated  both  by, a  parent  and  by  a  teacher. 
Teacher  ratings  were  also  obtained  for  523  children  of  ages  8  to  14  in 
a  control  group  composed  of  unselected  children  enrolled  in  the  same 
classes  as  the  gifted. 

Parents  and  teachers  agreed  fairly  well  regarding  the  traits  on  which 
the  gifted  children  were  most  or  least  superior  to  average  children.  The 
rank  order  of  the  traits  from  highest  to  lowest  mean  rating  by  parents 
correlated  .70  with  the  corresponding  rank  order  based  on  teachers5 
ratings.  However,  the  agreement  was  much  less  in  their  ratings  on 
individual  children ;  for  most  of  the  traits  it  was  represented  by  a  Pear- 
sonian  correlation  of  only  about .  30.  This  figure  should  not  be  regarded 
as  a  reliability  coefficient  in  the  true  sense,  for  the  reason  that  a  child's 
personality  behavior  in  the  school  is  often  very  different  from  that  which 
he  exhibits  in  the  home. 

More  important  is  the  comparison  of  gifted  and  control  subjects  on 
ratings  given  to  both  groups  by  the  teachers.  Table  2  giv&s  the  com- 
parative data  on  both  for  the  25  individual  traits  and  for  groups  of  traits 
as  classified  in  various  categories.  The  figures  in  Table  2  are  for  the 
sexes  combined  and  for  all  ages  combined,  since  the  mean  ratings  varied 
only  slightly  either  with  age  or  with  sex.  The  slight  variation  by  age 
and  sex  was- to  be  expected  in  view  of  the  fact  that  raters  were  instructed 
to  rate  each  subject  in  comparison  with  the  "average  child  of  his  age 
and  sex." 

The  superiority  of  the  gifted  over  the  control  subjects  as  shown  by 
teachers'  ratings  agrees  fairly  well  with  the  data  from  other  sources. 
This  is  especially  true  in  regard  to  the  kinds  of  traits  in  which  the  supe- 
riority of  the  gifted  is  most  or  least  marked.  At  the  top  of  the  list  are  the 
four  intellectual  traits,  with  89  percent  of  gifted  rated  at  or  above  the 
mean  of  control  subjects.  Especially  high  were  the  ratings  of  "general 
intelligence"  and  "desire  to  know/'  Next  highest  were  the  four  voli- 
tional traits,  with  percentages  in  the  narrow  range  of  84  to  81.  Third 
highest  are  the  three  emotional  traits,  with  "sense  of  humor"  (74%)  the 


14  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  2 

PERCENTAGES  OF  GIFTED  SUBJECTS  RATED  BY  TEACHERS 
ABOVE  THE  MEAN  OF  THE  CONTROL  GROUP 

Percent 

1.  Intellectual  traits 

General  intelligence 97 

Desire  to  know 90 

Originality 85 

Common  sense  84 

Average  of  intellectual  traits 89 

2.  Volitional  traits 

Will  power  and  perseverance 84 

Desire  to  excel 84 

Self-confidence  81 

Prudence  and  forethought 81 

Average  of  volitional  traits 82.5 

3.  Emotional  traits 

Sense  of  humor 74 

Cheerfulness  and  optimism 64 

Permanence  of  moods 63 

Average  of  emotional  traits 67 

4.  Aesthetic  traits 

Musical  appreciation 66 

Appreciation  of  beauty 64 

Average  of  aesthetic  traits 65 

5.  Moral  traits 

Conscientiousness 72 

Truthfulness   71 

Sympathy  and  tenderness 58 

Generosity  and  unselfishness 55 

Average  of  moral  traits 64 

6^  Physical  traits 

Health    6Q 

Physical  energy 53 

Average  of  physical  traits 61 

7.  Social  traits 

Leadership 70 

Sensitivity  to  approval j>. 57 

Popularity  53 

Freedom  from  vanity 52 

Fondness  for  large  groups 52 

Average  for  social  traits 57^4 

8.  Mechanical  ingenuity ,        47 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  TERMAN  STUDY  IS 

highest  of  the  three.  The  two  aesthetic  traits  rank  fourth  with  percent- 
ages of  64  and  66.  Of  the  four  moral  traits,  "conscientiousness"  and 
"truthfulness"  are  rated  reliably  higher  than  the  other  two  ("sym- 
pathy" and  "generosity").  The  two  ratings  on  physical  traits,  which 
rank  next,  agree  fairly  well  with  the  physical  data  obtained  from  medical 
examinations,  health  histories,  and  anthropometric  measurements. 
Ranking  seventh  are  the  five  social  traits ;  of  these,  only  "leadership" 
(with  70%  )  is  rated  very  much  above  the  mean  of  control  children.  The 
ratings  on  "leadership"  are  consistent  with  the  later  follow-up  studies 
which  have  shown  the  high  frequency  with  which  gifted  subjects  have 
been  elected  to  class  offices  and  honors  despite  their  usual  age  disad- 
vantage. 

"Mechanical  ingenuity"  was  the  one  trait  in  which  teachers  rated 
the  gifted  below  unselected  children.  It  is  certain  that  the  teachers  were 
in  error  here,  for  test  scores  in  mechanical  ability  have  been  consistently 
found  to  yield  positive,  not  negative,  correlations  with  intelligence 
scores.  This  is  a  trait  which  the  average  classroom  teacher  has  little 
opportunity  to  observe ;  moreover,  she  is  prone  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
the  gifted  child  in  her  class  is  usually  a  year  or  two  younger  than  the 
others. 

SUMMARY  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  TYPICAL  GIFTED  CHILD 

Although  there  are  many  exceptions  to  the  rule,  the  typical  gifted 
child  is  the  product  of  superior  parentage — superior  not  only  in  cultural 
and  educational  background,  but  apparently  also  in  heredity.  As  a 
result  of  the  combined  influence  of  heredity  and  environment,  such 
children  are  superior  physically  to  the  average  child  of  the  general 
population. 

Educationally,  the  typical  gifted  child  is  accelerated  in  grade  place- 
ment about  14  percent  of  his  age ;  but  in  mastery  of  the  subject  matter 
taught,  he  is  accelerated  about  44  percent  of  his  age.  The  net  result  is 
that  during  the  elementary-school  period  a  majority  of  gifted  children 
are  kept  at  school  tasks  two  or  three  full  grades  below  the  level  of 
achievement  they  have  already  reached. 

The  interests  of  gifted  children  are  many-sided  and  spontaneous. 
The  members  of  our  group  learned  to  read  easily  and  read  many  more 
and  also  better  books  than  the  average  child.  At  the  same  time,  they 
engaged  in  a  wide  range  of  childhood  activities  and  acquired  far  more 


16  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

knowledge  of  plays  and  games  than  the  average  child  of  their  years. 
Their  preferences  among  plays  and  games  closely  follow  the  normal  sex 
trends  with  regard  to  masculinity  and  femininity  of  interests,  although 
gifted  girls  tend  to  be  somewhat  more  masculine  in  their  play  life  than 
the  average  girls.  Both  sexes  show  a  degree  of  interest  maturity  two 
or  three  years  beyond  the  age  norm. 

A  battery  of  seven  character  tests  showed  gifted  children  above 
average  on  every  one.  On  the  total  score  of  the  character  tests  the  typi- 
cal gifted  child  at  age  9  tests  as  high  as  the  average  child  at  age  12. 

Ratings  on  25  traits  by  parents  and  teachers  confirm  the  evidence 
from  tests  and  case  histories.  The  proportion  of  gifted  subjects  rated 
superior  to  unselected  children  of  corresponding  age  averaged  89  per- 
cent for  four  intellectual  traits,  82  percent  for  four  volitional  traits, 
67  percent  for  three  emotional  traits,  65  percent  for  two  aesthetic  traits, 
64  percent  for  four  moral  traits,  61  percent  for  two  physical  traits,  and 
57  percent  for  five  social  traits.  Only  on  mechanical  ingenuity  were 
they  rated  as  low  as  unselected  children,  and  this  verdict  is  contradicted 
by  tests  of  mechanical  aptitude. 

Three  facts  stand  out  clearly  in  this  composite  portrait:  (1)  The 
deviation  of  gifted  children  from  the  generality  is  in  the  upward  direc- 
tion for  nearly  all  traits ;  there  is  no  law  of  compensation  whereby  the 
intellectual  superiority  of  the  gifted  is  offset  by  inferiorities  along  non- 
intellectual  lines.  (2)  The  amount  of  upward  deviation  of  the  gifted 
is  not  the  same  for  all  traits.  (3)  This  unevenness  of  abilities  is  no 
greater  for  gifted  than  for  average  children,  but  it  is  different  in  direc- 
tion; whereas  the  gifted  are  at  their  best  in  the  "thought"  subjects, 
average  children  are  at  their  best  in  subjects  that  make  the  least  demands 
upon  the  formation  and  manipulation  of  concepts. 

Finally,  the  reader  should  bear  in  mind  that  there  is  a  wide  range 
of  variability  within  our  gifted  group  on  every  trait  we  have  investi- 
gated. Descriptions  of  the  gifted  in  terms  of  what  is  typical  are  useful 
as  a  basis  for  generalization,  but  emphasis  on  central  tendencies  should 
not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  gifted  children,  far  from  falling  into  a  single 
pattern,  represent  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  patterns. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  INTERMEDIATE  YEARS 


For  several  years  after  1922  the  progress  of  the  group  was  followed  by 
means  of  information  blanks  sent  annually  to  parents  and  teachers  re- 
questing certain  physical,  educational,  and  social  data.  In  1927—28  a 
more  thorough  investigation  by  field  workers  was  undertaken  and 
became  the  first  of  three  field  follow-ups  at  approximately  10-  to  12- 
year  intervals.  These  field  studies  were  supplemented  by  intervening 
surveys  by  mail. 

Six  YEARS  LATER  :  THE  PROMISE  OF  YOUTH 

The  six-year  interval  between  the  original  research  and  the  follow- 
up  investigation  of  1927-28  was  in  a  number  of  respects  favorable  as 
to  length;  it  was  great  enough  to  make  a  comparison  between  earlier 
and  later  findings  significant  and  interesting,  but  not  so  long  as  to  make 
it  impossible  to  use  any  of  the  kinds  of  tests  employed  in  the  original 
study. 

At  the  time  of  the  follow-up  (1927-28)  the  average  age  of  the  sub- 
jects was  between  16  and  17  years  and  the  majority  were  in  high  school. 
The  data  secured  for  the  subjects  included  intelligence  tests,  school 
achievement  tests,  personality  tests,  and  interest  tests.  Other  types  of 
data  obtained  were  as  follows :  a  Home  Information  Blank  of  four  pages 
was  filled  out  by  parents  of  subjects  up  to  and  including  age  nineteen. 
A  two-page  Interest  Blank  was  filled  out  by  the  subjects  under  twenty, 
and  a  two-page  Information  Blank  by  those  twenty  or  over.  A  School 
Information  Blank  of  two  pages  was  filled  out  by  the  teachers  of  the 
children  who  were  still  in  elementary  or  high  school.  A  Trait  Rating 
Blank  provided  ratings  by  parents  and  teachers  on  12  traits  selected 
from  the  25  on  which  ratings  were  secured  in  1921-22.  Finally,  blanks 
were  provided  for  the  field  workers'  reports  on  home  visits  and  on  con- 
ferences with  the  children  themselves  and  their  teachers.  It  was  not 
possible,  unfortunately,  to  repeat  the  medical  examinations  and  physi- 
cal measurements  of  the  original  study,  but  considerable  information 

17 


18  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

on  physical  development  and  health  history  was  secured  from  parents 
and  teachers. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  outcome  of  the  1927-28  follow-up  was 
the  fact  that  the  composite  portrait  of  the  group  had  changed  only  in 
minor  respects  in  six  years.  As  a  whole,  the  group  was  still  highly 
superior  intellectually,  for  the  most  part  within  the  top  1  or  2  percent 
of  the  generality.  There  was  some  evidence  that  the  boys  had  dropped 
slightly  in  IQ  and  that  the  girls  had  dropped  somewhat  more.  This  con- 
clusion, however,  needs  .to  be  qualified  in  two  respects :  For  one  thing, 
the  intelligence  tests  used  in  the  follow-up  lacked  sufficient  top  to  yield 
IQ's  strictly  comparable  with  those  of  1921-22;  for  another,  it  should 
be  pointed  out  that  some  regression  toward  the  mean  is  to  be  expected 
from  purely  statistical  considerations. 

The  showing  in  school  achievement  was  in  line  with  that  for  intelli- 
gence. There  was  less  skipping  of  school  grades  after  the  age  of  eleven 
or  twelve  years,  but  the  quality  of  work  for  the  group  in  general  re- 
mained at  an  exceedingly  high  level.  For  example,  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  high-school  grades  of  the  girls  and  more  than  one-half  of  the  high- 
school  grades  of  the  boys  were  A's.  The  significance  of  this  is  accentu- 
ated by  the  fact  that  the  gifted  group  in  the  high-school  period  averaged 
considerably  younger  than  the  generality  of  high-school  students.  In 
evaluating  school  achievement  at  the  high-school  or  college  level,  it  is 
also  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  higher  the  grade  the  more  highly 
selected  is  the  school  population  with  whom  the  gifted  subjects  are  com- 
pared. 

The  composite-portrait  method  is  useful,  just  as  concepts  and  gen- 
eralizations are  useful  in  the  shorthand  of  thinking.  Nevertheless,  the 
composite  portrait,  like  any  other  kind  of  average,  fails  to  convey  any 
sense  of  the  uniqueness  of  the  individual  subjects  who  compose  the 
group.  Although  deviations  below  average  intelligence  were  not  found 
in  the  1927-28  follow-up,  extreme  deviations  both  from  the  group  aver- 
age and  from  the  generality  were  found  in  almost  every  physical,  mental, 
and  personality  trait,  including  size,  athletic  ability,  health,  scientific 
ability,  literary  ability,  masculinity,  social  and  activity  interests,  voca- 
tional aptitude,  social  intelligence,  leadership,  ambition,  and  moral  de- 
pendability. It  is  true  that  on  all  of  these  traits  the  mean  for  the  gifted 
group  tends  to  be  higher  than  for  unselected  children  of  corresponding 
age,  but  the  range  of  variability  in  these  and  other  traits  was  if  anything 
greater  in  mid-youth  than  it  had  been  in  mid-childhood.  The  results 
of  the  1927-28  follow-up  and  a  collateral  study  of  the  literary  juvenilia 


THE  INTERMEDIATE  YEARS  19 

of  certain  members  of  the  group  are  described  at  length  in  Volume  III 
of  this  series.3 

EIGHTEEN  YEARS  LATER  :  THE  GIFTED  CHILD  GROWS  UP 

For  eight  years  after  the  follow-up  described  in  the  preceding  section 
there  was  no  systematic  attempt  to  contact  all  the  members  of  the  gifted 
group.  During  that  period,  however,  considerable  correspondence  was 
carried  on  with  the  parents  and  occasionally  with  the  individual  subjects 
of  the  group.  Many  wrote  about  their  activities,  or  came  to  Stanford 
University  for  personal  interviews.  From  the  majority  of  the  group, 
however,  little  information  was  secured  during  this  period. 

In  1936  plans  were  laid  for  an  extensive  field  study  to  be  made  as 
soon  as  funds  should  become  available.  First,  however,  it  seemed  de- 
sirable to  get  in  touch  with  as  many  as  possible  of  the  original  group 
by  mail,  and  to  secure  certain  information  that  would  aid  in  planning 
for  the  projected  field  study.  Accordingly,  a  letter  was  sent  out  de- 
tailing the  study  and  its  purposes,  and  asking  for  the  address  of  the 
subject,  of  his  parents,  and  of  a  relative  or  friend  through  whom  the  sub- 
ject might  be  located  in  later  years.  The  letter  was  usually  sent  to  the 
parents,  although  occasionally  it  went  to  the  subject  himself  at  the  most 
recent  address  in  our  files.  When  the  addresses  had  been  received,  a 
four-page  Information  Blank  was  sent  to  each  subject,  and  a  four-page 
Home  Information  Blank  to  the  parents  or,  if  both  parents  were  de- 
ceased, to  a  near  relative.  The  blank  was  accompanied  by  a  letter  em- 
phasizing our  continued  interest  in  the  subject,  and  the  value  both  to 
science  and  to  education  of  exact  knowledge  regarding  the  adult  careers 
of  persons  who  had  tested  high  in  intelligence  during  childhood. 

The  subject's  Information  Blank  called  for  detailed  information 
regarding  educational  history,  occupations  since  leaving  school,  avoca- 
tional  interests  and  activities,  general  health,  marital  status,  and  deaths 
among  relatives  since  1928.  The  Home  Information  Blank  called  for 
information  on  the  subject's  physical  and  mental  health,  indications  of 
special  abilities,  personality  and  character  traits,  education  and  occupa- 
tions of  siblings,  and  the  accomplishments  and  activities  of  the  sub- 
ject's parents.  Both  blanks  gave  ample  space  for  "additional  informa- 
tion" not  called  for  by  specific  questions  and  this  brought,  in  many  cases, 
extremely  valuable  and  detailed  replies. 

The  blanks  were  sent  out  in  the  spring  of  1936  and,  though  the  great 
majority  of  the  reports  had  been  received  by  midsummer,  there  was 
considerable  difficulty  in  locating  some  of  the  subjects.  It  was  nearly 


20  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

a  year  before  blanks  could  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  all  those  who  finally 
'  were  located.  This  mail  follow-up  was  more  successful  than  had  been 
expected,  for  approximately  90  percent  of  the  subjects  were  located  and 
from  nearly  all  of  them  considerable  information  was  obtained. 

The  information  collected  in  1936  brought  the  case  history  records 
up  to  date  and  thus  set  the  stage  for  the  more  searching  investigation 
of  1939-40.  This  follow-up  was  of  special  interest  because  it  consti- 
tuted the  first  person-to-person  contact  with  the  subjects  since  they 
had  become  adults  (the  average  age  in  1940  was  29.5  years).  At  the 
time  of  the  original  survey  and  again  in  the  1927-28  field  follow-up, 
except  for  the  tests  and  personal  interviews  which  were  conducted 
chiefly  at  the  schools,  most  of  our  information  had  been  obtained  from 
the  parents  and  the  teachers.  This  was  intentional  because  it  was  our 
purpose  not  to  emphasize  the  study  and  its  implications  in  the  minds 
of  the  children.  The  following  quotation  from  the  instructions  to  the 
parents  and  teachers  both  in  1921-22  and  in  1927-28  is  self-explana- 
tory: 

In  order  to  avoid  the  danger  of  causing  undue  self -consciousness,  parents 
are  urged  not  to  call  the  child's  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  (or  she)  is  be- 
ing studied.  Do  not  tell  the  child  the  exact  result  of  the  mental  test,  or  say 
anything  about  the  special  information  which  is  sought  in  this  blank.  Pub- 
licity of  every  kind  should  be  avoided.  Do  nothing  which  could  possibly 
stimulate  vanity  or  self -consciousness. 

Although  many — perhaps  most — of  the  children  did  know  by  1927-28 
the  nature  of  the  experiment  in  which  they  were  involved  at  least  to  the 
extent  of  realizing  they  had  been  chosen  as  bright  students  by  a  pro- 
fessor who  was  interested  in  such  students,  the  knowledge  seems  not 
to  have  been  of  much  concern  to  most.  This  was  brought  out  in  the 
Information  Blank  of  1936  which  asked  this  question:  What  effects 
(favorable,  unfavorable,  or  both)  has  this  knowledge  (of  being  a  sub- 
ject in  an  investigation  of  gifted  children)  had  upon  you? 

The  responses  classified  separately  for  the  sexes  were  as  follows : 

Men  Women 

%  % 

Favorable 12.9  18.7 

Unfavorable    9.1  10.7 

Both  favorable  and  unfavorable 4.7  6.3 

No  effect 73.3  64.3 

The  second  field  follow-up  began  late  in  1939  and  continued  into 
1941  but  the  bulk  of  the  data  was  collected  in  1940.  Four  field  workers 


THE  INTERMEDIATE  YEARS  21 

spent  the  year  interviewing  the  subjects  and,  wherever  possible,  their 
parents  also.  Intelligence  tests  were  administered  to  the  subjects,  their 
spouses,  and  their  offspring  and  extensive  questionnaire  data  were  col- 
lected from  the  subjects,  the  spouses,  and  the  parents  of  the  subjects.  In 
addition,  the  Strong  Vocational  Interest  Blank31  was  filled  out  by  the 
men  of  the  group.  The  study  was  highly  successful  with  some  informa- 
tion secured  either  directly  or  indirectly  for  nearly  98  percent  of  the 
living  subjects,  and  fairly  complete  data  were  furnished  by  the  96 
percent  who  co-operated  actively. 

So  great  was  the  amount  of  material  on  hand  at  the  close  of  the  field 
study  that  the  punched  card  technique  was  used  to  analyze  and  corre- 
late the  data  more  efficiently.  Not  only  the  1940  information  but  also  the 
extensive  case  history  data  accumulated  since  the  inception  of  this  re- 
search were  coded  and  transferred  to  punched  cards.  This  method  of 
handling  the  data  made  possible  a  very  detailed  study  of  the  gifted  child 
grown  up,  which  has  been  fully  reported  in  the  preceding  volume  of 
this  series.36  This  earlier  volume  includes  also  the  results  of  a  supple- 
mentary survey  conducted  by  means  of  a  questionnaire  mailed  in  1945- 
46,  which  brought  up  to  date  the  records  on  the  main  events  in  the  lives 
of  the  subjects  between  1940  and  1946 — close  to  25  years  after  they  had 
been  selected  for  study. 

In  addition  to  the  reports  on  mortality,  general  health  and  physique, 
mental  health  and  general  adjustment,  intellectual  status,  educational 
histories,  occupational  status  and  income,  vocational  interest  tests,  avo- 
cational  interests,  political  and  social  attitudes,  marriage  and  offspring, 
and  marital  adjustment,  Volume  IV  includes  several  special  studies 
based  on  an  analysis  of  total  case  history.  The  studies  included  sub- 
jects of  IQ  170  and  above,  subjects  of  Jewish  descent,  factors  in  the 
achievement  of  gifted  men,  and  the  effects  of  school  acceleration.  Among 
the  conclusions  reached  were  the  following : 

That  to  near  mid-life,  such  a  group  may  be  expected  to  show  a  nor- 
mal or  below-normal  incidence  of  serious  personality  maladjustment, 
insanity,  delinquency,  alcoholism,  and  homosexuality. 
•^  That,  as  a  rule,  those  who  as  children  tested  above  170  IQ  were 
more  often  accelerated  in  school,  got  better  grades,  and^received  more 
schooling  than  lower-testing  members  of  the  group ;  jtnat  uiey  are  not 
appreciably  more  prone  to  serious  maladjustment;  and  that  vocation- 
ally they  are  more  successful. 

That  gifted  children  who  have  been  promoted  more  rapidly  than  is 


22  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

customary  are  as  a  group  equal  or  superior  to  gifted  nonaccelerates  in 
health  and  general  adjustment,  do  better  school  work,  continue  their 
education  further,  and  are  more  successful  in  their  later  careers. 

j  That  the  intellectual  status  of  the  average  member  of  the  group  at 
the  mean  age  of  thirty  years  was  close  to  the  98th  or  99th  percentile  of 
the  general  adult  population,  and  was  far  above  the  average  level  of 
ability  of  graduates  from  superior  colleges  and  universities. 

SThat  in  vocational  achievement  the  gifted  group  rates  well  above 
the  average  of  college  graduates!  aiKf^as  compared  with  the  general 
population,  is  represented  in  the  higher  professions  by  eight  or  nine 
times  its  proportionate  share. 

£„  That  the  vocational  success  of  subjects,  all  of  whom  as  children 
tested  in  the  top  1  percent  of  the  child  population  is,  as  one  would  ex- 
pect, greatly  influenced  by  motivational  factors  and  personality  adjust- 
ment. 

g|  That  the  incidence  of  marriage  in  the  group  to  1945  is  above  that 
for  the  generality  of  college  graduates  of  comparable  age  in  the  United 
States,  and  about  equal  to  that  in  the  general  population. 

That  marital  adjustment  of  the  gifted,  as  measured  by  the  marital 
happiness  test,  is  equal  or  superior  to  that  found  in  groups  less  highly 
selected  for  intelligence,  and  that  the  divorce  rate  is  no  higher  than  that 
of  the  generality  of  comparable  age. 

^JThat  the  sexual  adjustment  of  these  subjects  in  marriage  is  in  all 
respects  as  normal  as  that  found  in  a  less  gifted  and  less  educated  group 
of  792  married  couples. 

That  the  test  of  marital  aptitude  predicts  later  marital  success  or 
failure  in  this  group  a  little  better  than  the  test  of  marital  happiness, 
much  better  than  the  index  of  sexual  adjustment,  and  almost  as  well  as 
scholastic  aptitude  tests  predict  success  or  failure  in  college. 

That  offspring  of  gifted  subjects  show  almost  exactly  the  same  de- 
gree of  filial  regression  as  is  predicated  by  Galton's  Law. 

I  That  the  fertility  of  the  group  to  1945  is  probably  below  that  neces- 
sary for  the  continuation  of  the  stock  from  which  the  subjects  come, 
and  that  this  stock  is  greatly  superior  to  the  generality. 

\  That  Jewish  subjects  in  the  group  differ  very  little  from  the  non- 
Jewish  in  ability,  character,  and  personality  traits,  as  measured  either 
by  tests  or  by  ratings,  but  that  they  display  somewhat  stronger  drive 
to  achieve,  form  more  stable  marriages,  and  are  a  little  less  conserva- 
tive in  their  political  and  social  attitudes. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  GROUP  REACHES  MID-LIFE 


The  third  field  follow-up  of  the  gifted  subjects  was  made  in  1950-52. 
In  order  to  pave  the  way  for  the  field  worker  contacts,  a  General  In- 
formation Blank  was  mailed  in  the  spring-  of  1950,  and  had  been  re- 
turned by  the  majority  of  the  subjects  by  the  fall  of  that  year.  The  field 
work  got  under  way  in  late  1950  and  was  completed  about  mid-1952. 

The  preliminary  blank  called  for  some  twenty  kinds  of  information 
that  would  furnish  a  profile  of  the  gifted  subjects  at  mid-life.  Other 
blanks  and  tests  used  in  gathering  follow-up  data  included  the  following : 
a  highly  difficult  test  of  intelligence  (Concept  Mastery  test)  comparable 
to  that  used  in  1939—40  but  with  certain  improvements ;  an  abbreviated 
form  of  the  1939-40  marital  happiness  test;  a  four-page  questionnaire 
calling  for  information  on  factors  that  had  influenced  rate  of  repro- 
duction ;  an  eight-page  questionnaire  designed  to  throw  light  on  factors 
relating  to  childhood  and  family  background  that  might  have  influenced 
personality  development,  motivation,  or  life  success ;  a  four-page  blank 
relating  to  the  development,  health  history,  and  personality  character- 
istics of  each  child  born  to  members  of  the  group. 

The  field  work  program  included  personal  interviews  with  as  many 
of  the  subjects  as  possible  (and  usually  the  spouses  also)  who  were  liv- 
ing in  California,  the  administration  of  the  Concept  Mastery  test  and 
the  various  supplementary  questionnaires  to  the  subject  and  the  spouse, 
and  the  testing  of  offspring  of  appropriate  age  with  the  Stanford-Binet 
test.  In  the  case  of  those  subjects  living  at  a  distance  (about  18%  of 
the  total),  funds  were  not  sufficient  to  provide  for  visits  by  field  work- 
ers. Except  for  the  personal  interview  and  the  intelligence  tests,  how- 
ever, the  same  data  were  collected  by  mail  for  these  subjects  as  for  the 
in-state  group  seen  personally. 

The  statistical  treatment  and  analysis  of  the  information  collected 
in  the  follow-up  was  such  an  enormous  and  time-consuming  task  that 
it  was  decided  in  1955  to  bring  the  demographic  information  up  to  date 
for  inclusion  in  the  published  report  of  the  status  of  the  gifted  group 

23 


24  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

at  mid-life.  Accordingly  a  two-page  Information  Blank  was  mailed  to 
the  subjects  in  the  spring  of  1955,  calling  for  the  latest  information  on 
the  main  items  of  basic  data. 

In  addition  to  the  data  blanks*  for  the  subjects  and  spouses  listed 
In  Table  3,  Stanford-Binet  tests  have  been  given  to  a  total  of  1,525  off- 
spring of  the  gifted  subjects.  For  a  large  proportion  of  these  children 
a  record  of  developmental  history  (Information  About  Child)  was  filled 
out  by  a  parent,  usually  the  mother,  at  the  time  of  testing.  The  data 
from  this  blank  will  be  reported  in  a  separate  publication  at  a  later  date. 

TABLE  3 
DATA  SECURED  FOR  SUBJECTS  AND  SPOUSES,  1950-1955 

N 


Subjects        Spouses 
I.  1950-52  Follow-up 

General  Information  (for  subjects) 1,268 

Supplementary  Biographical  Data  (for  subjects  and 

spouses) 1,119 

Data  on  Rate  of  Reproduction  and  Happiness  of 

Marriage  (for  subjects)  972 

Happiness  of  Your  Marriage  (for  spouses) 565 

Concept  Mastery  Test  (subjects  and  spouses) 1,004           690 

II.  1955  Follow-up 

Information  Blank  (for  subjects) 1,288 

STATUS  OF  THE  GIFTED  STUDY  1950-1955 

When  the  follow-up  data  of  1950-52  were  gathered,  the  subjects 
had  been  under  observation  for  approximately  30  years,  and  at  the  time 
of  the  1955  survey  the  time  had  extended  to  about  34  years.  Of  the 
original  group  of  1,528  subjects,  91  had  died  by  1950  and  an  additional 
13  deaths  by  1955  brought  the  total  number  of  deceased  subjects  to 
104.  During  the  course  of  study  we  have  completely  lost  track  of  only 
28  subjects  (11  men  and  17  women).  In  none  of  these  cases  has  any 
contact  been  effected  since  1928  or  earlier,  either  with  the  subjects,  their 
parents,  or  any  members  of  their  families.  Although  it  is  possible  that 
not  all  of  the  "lost"  subjects  are  now  living,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  our  original  loss  of  contact  was  in  any  case  caused  by  the  death  of 
the  subject  but  rather  by  the  removal  of  the  family  to  a  different  area. 
The  eight-year  interval  between  the  field  follow-up  of  1927-28  and  the 
mail  follow-up  of  1936  made  it  difficult  to  trace  the  subjects  who  had 

*  These  blanks  are  reproduced  in  the  Appendix. 


THE  GROUP  REACHES  MID-LIFE  25 

moved  any  distance,  especially  since  the  relationships  with  the  parents, 
and  to  an  even  greater  extent  with  the  subjects,  had  not  been  suffi- 
ciently well  established  by  1928  to  ensure  their  notifying  the  research 
administration  of  changes  in  address.  The  greater  loss  in  the  case  of 
women  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  greater  difficulty  in  tracing  them 
because  of  name  changes  through  marriage. 

By  1955  death  had  reduced  the  number  of  subjects  under  study  to 
795  men  and  629  women.  The  11  men  and  17  women  classified  as  "lost" 
bring  the  number  for  whom  information  on  current  status  was  sought 
to  784  men  and  612  women.  In  addition  to  the  "lost"  subjects  there  are 
a  few  other  persons  for  whom  our  information  is  fragmentary,  often 
secured  indirectly  through  parent,  sibling,  or  other  informant.  Further- 
more, not  everyone,  including  some  of  the  most  interested  and  co- 
operative, completed  all  the  blanks ;  in  a  few  cases,  even,  no  blanks  were 
filled  out,  the  subject  preferring  to  give  the  information  in  an  inter- 
view or  informally  in  a  letter.  Occasionally,  too,  a  subject  omitted  one 
or  more  items  in  filling  out  a  questionnaire.  For  these  reasons  there  will 
be  slight  irregularities  in  the  number  of  cases  (N)  for  whom  various 
types  of  data  are  reported  in  succeeding  chapters.  In  the  case  of  the 
Concept  Mastery  test  the  number  of  individuals  is  necessarily  limited 
to  those  to  whom  the  test  could  be  administered  in  person.  All  subjects 
who  were  personally  interviewed  or  for  whom  information  was  sup- 
plied either  in  a  questionnaire  or  through  correspondence  are  considered 
to  have  co-operated  in  the  follow-ups. 

The  success  of  these  two  follow-ups  is  indicated  by  the  almost  in- 
credible amount  of  co-operation  that  was  secured.  Of  the  1,437  sub- 
jects living  at  the  time  of  the  field  study,  95  percent  participated  actively 
and  the  addition  of  those  for  whom  information  was  secured  indirectly 
brings  the  total  contacted,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  to  97 . 5  percent. 
The  results  of  the  mail  follow-up  of  1955  are  almost  as  impressive,  with 
co-operation  from  93  percent  of  the  1,424  subjects  then  living.*  The 
follow-up  contacts  and  co-operation  for  both  the  field  study  of  1950-52 
and  the  mail  follow-up  of  1955  are  shown  in  Table  4. 

SCOPE  OF  THIS  REPORT 

In  the  follow-ups  of  1950-55  reported  here,  as  throughout  the  study, 
the  information  obtained  has  not  been  limited  to  that  secured  by  tests 

*  The  28  "lost"  subjects  are  included  in  the  totals  of  1,437  and  1,424  since  we 
are  continuing  to  look  for  them. 


26  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  4 
FOLLOW-UP  CONTACTS  AND  CO-OPERATION,  1950-1955 


%of  Total 
Group 


I.  Field  Study  of  1950-52 

Subjects  interviewed  by  field  workers 1,142 

Subj  ects  contacted  by  mail  only 225 

Total  actively  co-operating 1,367       95 . 1 

No  direct  contact  with  subject  but  information 

from  other  sources 34 

Total  in  touch  with  directly  or  indirectly 1,401        97 . 5 

No  contact  or  information  in  1950-52  but  co- 
operating 1940-1945  8 

Lost :  unable  to  trace  and  no  information  since 

1928  or  earlier 28 

Total  group 1,437* 

II.  Follow-up  by  Mail,  1955 

Information  blank  filled  out  by  subject 1,288  90.5 

No  direct  contact  with  subject  but  information 

from  other  sources 38 

Total  in  touch  with  directly  or  indirectly 1,326        93 . 1 

Co-operating  in  1950-52  but  no  information 
supplied  in  1955 63 

No  contact  or  information  in  1955  but  co- 
operating 1940-45 7 

Lost :  unable  to  trace  and  no  information  since 

1928  or  earlier 28 

Total  group 1,424* 

*  The  difference  in  the  total  group  N's  is  accounted  for  by  13  deaths  between  1952  and  1955. 

and  questionnaires.  The  data  furnished  by  the  subjects  have  been  illu- 
minated by  the  field  worker  reports,  and  much  additional  interesting 
and  valuable  information  has  come  through  informal  personal  corre- 
spondence and  visits  of  the  subjects  or  members  of  their  families  with 
the  research  staff  at  Stanford  University.  Such  correspondence  and 
visits  have  been  frequent  over  the  years,  regardless  of  whether  a  follow- 
up  was  in  progress. 

This  study  is  unique  in  many  aspects,  particularly  in  the  length  of 
time — almost  35  years — that  the  same  group  of  individuals  has  been 
followed,  and  in  the  wealth  of  material  collected  about  the  subjects  from 
childhood  or  early  youth  to  mid-life,  thus  furnishing  a  continuous  record 
of  intellectual  development  and  of  educational,  vocational,  and  marital 
history  as  well  as  of  physical  and  mental  health.  In  addition  to  these 


THE  GROUP  REACHES  MID-LIFE  27 

specific  items  there  is  a  great  deal  of  less  easily  statisticized  data.  These 
include  the  explorations  into  the  personality  dynamics,  interests,  and 
attitudes  of  the  subject  that  complete  the  total  picture  of  the  gifted  indi- 
vidual. The  case  history  material  is  further  enhanced  by  collateral  data 
on  the  parents,  the  siblings,  and  the  offspring.  Finally,  the  unparalleled 
co-operation  of  the  subjects  and  their  families  lends  additional  impor- 
tance and  validity  to  the  findings. 

So  vast  is  the  amount  of  information  collected  in  the  1950-55  fol- 
low-ups that  to  discuss  and  evaluate  it  fully  in  this  volume  would  delay* 
publication  until  some  of  the  items,  particularly  those  related  to  vital 
and  social  statistics,  would  be  out  of  date.  This  report,  therefore,  will 
be  concerned  chiefly  with  the  data  called  for  in  the  1950  General  Infor- 
mation Blank  and  the  1955  Information  Blank.  As  a  rule,  in  the  case 
of  those  demographic  items  for  which  the  information  was  secured  at 
both  dates,  only  the  figures  for  the  more  recent  date  (1955)  are  given. 
Other  findings  to  be  covered  in  this  volume  include  the  results  of  the 
testing  of  the  subjects  and  their  spouses  with  the  Concept  Mastery  test 
and  of  their  offspring  with  the  Stanford-Binet  test.  The  tremendous 
amount  of  valuable  autobiographical  material  supplied  in  the  Supple- 
mentary Biographical  Data  blank  as  well  as  the  data  on  factors  affecting 
fecundity  in  the  group  as  found  in  the  Rate  of  Reproduction  blank  and 
on  marital  happiness  as  reported  in  The  Happiness  of  Your  Marriage 
blank  will  be  only  touched  on  in  this  volume.  The  detailed  analysis  and 
evaluation  of  the  information  from  these  questionnaires  is  reserved  for 
future  publication. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL 
ADJUSTMENT 


In  addition  to  our  interest  in  how  gifted  children  turn  out  from  the 
standpoint  of  educational,  occupational,  intellectual,  and  creative 
achievements,  we  also  want  to  know  about  their  careers  as  people.  In 
this  chapter  we  will  consider  the  mortality  record,  physical  health  status, 
and  the  mental  health  and  general  adjustment  of  the  gifted  subjects. 
The  latter  topic  includes,  in  addition  to  the  ratings  on  general  adjust- 
ment, such  specific  aspects  of  malfunctioning  as  mental  disease,  alco- 
holism, crime  and  delinquency,  and  problems  related  to  sex. 

MORTALITY 

By  1955  the  number  of  deaths  among  the  gifted  subjects  was  104 
(62  males  and  42  females)  ;  this  represents  an  incidence  of  7.3  percent 
for  males,  6.3  percent  for  females,  and  6.9  percent  for  the  total  group 
of  1,500  subjects  with  whom  we  have  been  able  to  keep  in  touch. 
Table  5  gives  the  mortality  rate  according  to  sex  and  age  at  death. 

TABLE  5 

MORTALITY  TO  1955 
ACCORDING  TO  SEX  AND  AGE  AT  DEATH 

Males  Females  Both  Sexes 

(N  =  846)  (N  =  654)  (N  =  1,500) 

Age  at  Death  N      %  N      %  — ^      ^~ 

Under  15  years 3  0.4  2    0.3  5  0.3 

15-24  years   22  2.6  14    2.1  36  2.4 

25-34  years   19  2.2  14    2.1  33  2.2 

35-44  years   17  2.0  12    1.8  29  1  9 

45-49years   1  0.1                1  0.1 

Aliases 62    7.3  42    6.3  104    6.9 

Median  age  at  death 29.5  years          27.6  years          28.4  years 

In  comparing  the  mortality  record  of  the  gifted  group  with  the  rate 
for  the  generality  the  life  table  data  supplied  by  Dublin  and  his  asso- 

28 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  29 

dates  for  two  different  periods  has  been  used.  The  first  tables  are  based 
on  the  mortality  conditions  of  1929-3 112  and  the  second  on  the  mor- 
tality conditions  of  1939-41 .13  The  data  for  these  two  periods  reflect 
fairly  well  the  conditions  to  which  the  gifted  subjects  have  been  ex- 
posed since  only  14  of  the  total  group  selected  in  1921-22  had  died 
before  1929.  The  mortality  rate  for  the  generality  in  a  particular 
age  span  can  be  determined  from  the  life  table  by  finding  the  number 
out  of  an  arbitrarily  large  number  (in  this  case  100,000)  of  live  births 
who  are  living  at  a  given  age  and  the  proportion  of  that  number  who 
die  by  a  specified  older  age.  Ages  11  and  44  were  chosen  as  the  initial 
and  upper  age  limits,  respectively,  on  the  life  table  because  they  ap- 
proximate the  average  ages  of  our  group  when  first  selected  for  study 
(1921-22),  and  at  the  time  of  latest  report  (1955).  Under  the  condi- 
tions of  1929-31,  the  life  tables  indicate  that  of  the  United  States  white 
population  who  survive  to  11  years  of  age,  12.7  percent  of  males,  10.8 
percent  of  females,  and  11.7  percent  of  the  total  cohort  will  have  died 
by  age  44.  Under  the  improved  mortality  conditions  of  1939-41  we 
find  that  in  the  general  population  9 . 1  percent  of  males,  6 . 8  percent 
of  females,  and  8.0  percent  of  the  total  white  population  alive  at  age  11 
will  have  died  by  age  44.  A  comparison  of  these  figures  with  those 
given  for  the  gifted  subjects  in  Table  5  shows  the  mortality  rate  for 
our  total  group  as  well  as  for  the  sexes  separately  to  be  lower  than  the 
expectation  based  on  conditions  at  either  of  the  life  table  dates.  This 
difference  may  be  attributable  to  the  superior  physique  and  health  that 
characterized  the  group  in  childhood  as  well  as  to  their  generally  su- 
perior intellectual  and  economic  status  and  its  concomitants.  However, 
as  will  be  seen,  accident-induced  mortality  has  also  been  somewhat  less 
than  for  the  generality. 

Causes  of  death.  The  causes  of  death  with  the  percentage  incidence 
are  given  in  Table  6.  Natural  causes  account  for  62  of  the  104  deaths. 
Accidents  follow  with  21  deaths,  and  suicide  ranks  third  with  15  deaths. 
The  five  World  War  II  casualties  are  listed  separately.  Three  of  these 
men  died  in  combat,  one  was  killed  in  the  crash  of  a  transport  plane 
he  was  piloting  on  military  duty,  and  a  naval  officer  lost  his  life  in  a 
storm  at  sea. 

Among  the  natural  causes  the  three  leading  diseases  have  been :  the 
cardiovascular-renal  group  with  17  deaths,  cancer  (including  3  cases 
of  leukemia)  with  10  deaths,  and  tuberculosis  with  9  deaths.  All  but 
four  of  the  27  deaths  from  the  first  two  causes  occurred  in  the  15-year 


30  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  6 
CAUSES  OF  DEATH 


Males 
(N  =  846) 

Females 
(N  =  654) 

N       % 

32    4.9 
4    0.6 

Both  Sexes 
(N  =  1,500) 

N 
..    30 

« 

3 
2 
0 
1 

ra 
.5 
.0 
.6 
.2 

N 

62 
21 
5 
15 
1 

104 

% 
4. 
1. 
0. 
1. 
0. 

6. 

9 
1 

4 
3 
0 

9 

..    17 

World  War  II  casualties  ,  . 

..      5 
..    10 

5 
1 

42 

0 
0 

6 

.7 
.1 

Death  from  all  causes  . 

..    62 

7 

I 

period  from  1939  through  1954.  This  agrees  with  the  pattern  in  the 
genera!  population  of  an  increase  in  the  death  rate  from  these  diseases 
with  advance  in  age.  On  the  other  hand,  with  one  exception,  all  the 
deaths  from  tuberculosis  occurred  before  1939  and  therefore  among 
younger  subjects. 

For  gifted  men,  only  the  cardiovascular-renal  diseases  among  the 
natural  causes  have  an  incidence  as  high  as  the  death  rate  from  acci- 
dents; each  has  caused  the  death  of  17  men.  Among  gifted  women 
three  diseases  rank  higher  than  accidents  as  a  cause  of  death :  tubercu- 
losis and  cancer  have  taken  six  lives  each,  and  diseases  of  the  heart 
account  for  five  deaths.  In  the  general  population,  accidents  rank  first 
(ahead  of  any  single  disease  or  defect)  as  a  cause  of  death  from  birth 
to  45  years  for  males  and  to  25  years  for  females,  and  are  in  fourth 
place  for  the  total  population  of  all  ages.  Of  the  accidental  deaths  those 
caused  by  motor  vehicle  accidents  were  the  most  frequent  in  this  group, 
just  as  they  are  in  the  general  population.  Eight  of  the  17  accidental 
deaths  among  the  males  and  all  four  of  those  among  females  resulted 
from  automobile  accidents.  Of  the  other  9  men,  4  were  killed  in  air- 
plane crashes  and  2  died  in  industrial  accidents.  One  death  resulted 
from  each  of  the  following :  drowning,  accidental  gunshot,  and  a  fall 
while  mountain  climbing. 

Suicide,  the  third  most  frequent  cause  of  death  in  the  group,  arouses 
particular  interest  because  of  the  tragedy  attached  to  these  deaths  and 
the  possibility  that  with  help  at  the  proper  moment  some  of  them  at 
least  could  have  been  avoided.  Data  for  accurate  comparison  of  the 
incidence  of  suicide  in  the  gifted  group  with  that  in  the  generality  are 
lacking.  The  vital  statistics  reports  give  only  the  incidence  of  suicide 
at  a  given  time — in  other  words,  a  "snapshot"  picture  of  the  situation. 
The  prevalence  rates  mentioned  in  most  of  the  research  studies  con- 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  31 

cerned  with  the  personality  and  motivations  of  the  individual  who  com- 
mits suicide  are  also  cross-sectional,  and  are  limited  to  a  particular 
date  or  period  of  time. 

The  most  helpful  information  on  the  amount  of  suicide  in  the  popu- 
lation at  large  comes  from  Dublin  and  his  associates,13  who  have  com- 
puted the  chances  per  1,000  at  decennial  ages  of  eventual  death  from 
certain  specified  causes.  These  expectancies  are  based  on  the  life  table 
and  death  data  for  the  United  States  during  1939-41.  Dublin10  points 
out  that  the  over-all  picture  of  suicide  in  the  United  States  shows  prac- 
tically no  change  in  rate  during  the  past  50  years,  though  there  have 
been  some  minor  fluctuations,  with  the  highest  rates  occurring  in  1932 
at  the  bottom  of  the  depression  and  the  lowest  rates  during  wartime. 
Dublin's  1939-41  data  can  therefore  be  considered  representative  of 
the  trend  of  suicide  during  the  lifetime  of  our  group.  According  to  the 
Dublin  data,  the  chances  per  1,000  population,  age  10  to  19  years,  of 
eventually  dying  by  suicide  are  17 . 5  for  white  males  and  5 . 5  for  white 
females.  In  terms  of  percentages,  the  expected  incidence  of  suicide 
among  the  total  population  ia  this  age  interval  is  approximately  1 . 8 
percent  for  males  and  about  0.6  percent  for  females.  As  shown  in 
Table  6  the  suicide  rate  in  the  gifted  group  to  1955  is  1 .2  percent  for 
men  and  0.7  percent  for  women. 

Comparison  of  the  data  for  the  gifted  with  that  for  the  total  popu- 
lation should  take  several  factors  into  account.  First,  the  figures  for  a 
life  table  population  are  derived  statistically  and,  while  they  serve  very- 
well  for  generalizations,  are  less  applicable  to  small  groups  than  are 
data  based  on  an  actual  population.  Especially  in  a  group  such  as  ours, 
which  is  not  only  relatively  small  but  also  heterogeneous  as  regards 
date  of  death  and  age  at  death,  differences  from  the  generality  may  well 
be  caused  by  chance.  In  considering  the  suicide  rate,  still  other  aspects 
of  the  situation  should  be  borne  in  mind.  Among  these  is  the  well- 
known  and  acknowledged  fact  that  all  quantitative  analyses  of  suicide 
in  the  generality  are  underestimates  since  many  suicides  are  never  so 
reported.  Not  only  may  the  person  committing  suicide  succeed  in 
making  his  death  appear  natural  or  accidental,  but  also  the  relatives 
and  friends  often  take  pains  to  conceal  the  fact  that  death  was  self- 
inflicted.  In  the  case  of  our  gifted  subjects  we  have  what  we  believe 
to  be  full  information  regarding  the  cause  of  death  for  all  but  one  sub- 
ject This  was  a  woman  who  had  at  one  time  attempted  suicide  but 
who  was  also  in  poor  health  for  a  number  of  years,  and  the  report  of 


32  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

her  death  received  from  a  former  employer  did  not  suggest  suicide. 
Other  factors  to  be  considered  in  appraising  the  amount  of  suicide  in 
the  gifted  group  are  the  regional  and  socio-economic  differences  in  sui- 
cide rate  found  for  the  generality.  Semelman30  reports  that  suicide  is 
most  frequent  in  the  West,  especially  in  California,  with  San  Francisco 
having  one  of  the  highest  rates  in  the  nation.  Henry  and  Short,18  basing 
their  conclusions  not  only  on  their  own  studies  but  also  on  a  survey 
of  the  work  of  other  investigators,  point  out  the  positive  relationship 
of  suicide  to  status,  both  social  and  economic.  Dublin  finds  that  suicide 
is  more  common  in  urban  than  in  rural  populations  and  more  frequent 
among  white  than  among  colored  people.  On  the  basis  of  these  findings, 
it  appears  that  the  gifted  subjects  as  a  group  possess  the  characteristics 
that  make  for  a  higher  suicide  rate :  Calif ornian  in  origin,  with  approxi- 
mately four-fifths  still  residing  in  the  state ;  chiefly  urban ;  white ;  and 
of  superior  status  from  the  standpoint  of  education,  occupation,  income, 
and  achievement. 

Bearing  these  factors  in  mind,  one  hesitates  to  draw  any  clear-cut 
conclusions  from  a  comparison  of  the  suicide  rate  in  our  group  with 
Dublin's  expectancy  rate.  However,  on  the  surface  at  least,  the  rate 
for  the  gifted  appears  to  be  high,  especially  in  the  case  of  women  who 
have  already  exceeded  the  total  expectancy  given  by  Dublin:  0.7  per- 
cent for  gifted  women  as  compared  with  0.6  percent  for  all  women. 
The  gifted  men  are  still  below  the  estimate  of  eventual  suicide  in  a 
10-  to  19-year-old  cohort :  1.2  percent  for  the  gifted  as  compared  with 
1 . 8  percent  for  the  generality  of  males.  Before  closing  this  discussion, 
mention  should  be  made  of  the  discrepancy  in  sex  differences  in  suicide 
rate  between  the  gifted  group  and  the  total  population.  All  investiga- 
tors report  a  much  higher  frequency  of  suicide  among  men,  ranging 
from  3  to  4  times  the  incidence  among  women.  Among  the  gifted  sub- 
jects, however,  less  than  twice  as  many  men  as  women,  proportion- 
ately, have  committed  suicide.  One  cannot,  of  course,  overlook  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  chance  difference  here  owing  to  the  relatively  small  numbers 
involved. 

Subjects  who  have  died.  The  average  age  at  death  for  those  who 
have  died  was  approximately  28  years  with  a  range  from  8  to  45  years 
(see  Table  5).  Their  IQ's  ranged  from  134  to  184  with  an  average 
of  149.  Ten  of  the  deceased  were  in  elementary  or  high  school  and  17 
were  undergraduate  students  in  college  at  the  time  of  death.  Another 
5  were  graduate  students.  Among  those  who  had  completed  their 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  33 

schooling  or  were  at  the  graduate  student  level,  50  percent  of  the  men 
and  38  percent  of  the  women  had  taken  a  bachelor's  degree  and  35 
percent  of  men  and  18  percent  of  women  had  attended  college  for  from 
one  to  four  years.  The  graduate  degrees  taken  include  3  Ph.D/s, 
3  M.D.'s,  3  LL.B.'s,  and  5  master's.  In  addition,  two  of  the  graduate 
students  among  the  deceased  men  were  candidates  for  a  master's  degree 
and  the  third  was  working  toward  an  engineering  degree.  Both  women 
graduate  students  were  on  the  point  of  getting  a  Ph.D.,  one  in  astronomy 
and  one  in  psychology.  Three  of  the  men  were  physicians,  3  were  law- 
yers, and  2  were  members  of  university  faculties.  Other  occupations 
represented  among  the  deceased  men  were  chemist,  business  executive, 
musician,  advertising  and  public  relations  work,  mechanic,  salesman, 
etc.  The  majority  of  the  women  who  died  after  completing  their  edu- 
cation were  married  and  occupied  as  housewives.  However,  one  was 
a  college  teacher,  one  a  statistician,  one  a  librarian,  and  one  a  high- 
school  teacher. 

GENERAL  HEALTH  AND  PHYSIQUE 

Information  on  general  health,  based  on  interviews  with  the  sub- 
jects and  often  with  the  spouses  as  well,  was  supplied  by  the  field 
workers  in  the  1939-40  and  the  1950-52  follow-ups.  In  addition,  self- 
ratings  by  the  subjects  on  physical  health  were  called  for  in  the  1940, 
1950-52,  and  1955  information  blanks.  Table  7  gives  the  ratings  on 

TABLE  7 
SELF-RATINGS  ON  PHYSICAL  HEALTH 

Men  Women 


1940  1950  1955  1940  1950  1955 

(N  =  700)  (N  =  750)  (N  =  714)        (N  =  563)  (N  =  601)  (N  =  567) 
Self-rating  %  %  %  %  %  % 

Very  good 52.3  50.5  46.5  44.7  43.3  43.0 

Good 38.6  41.6  44.8  39.0  43.4  45.5 

Fair... 7.3  6.2  7.0  12.7  11.1  8.3 

Poor  or  very  poor  1.9  1.7  1.7  3.7  2.2  3.2 

physical  health  for  the  three  follow-up  dates  when  the  subjects  were 
at  the  approximate  average  ages  of  29,  40,  and  44,  respectively.  These 
are  substantially  self -ratings,  although  in  a  few  instances  it  was  neces- 
sary to  interpret  or  modify  a  self-report  in  the  light  of  the  case  history 
evidence.  However,  such  modifications  were  felt  to  be  warranted  in 
less  than  one  percent  of  the  cases. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  ratings  are  consistent  for  each  of  the  three 


34  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

reports,  with  more  than  90  percent  of  the  men  and  from  84  to  88  per- 
cent of  the  women  rating  their  health  as  good  or  very  good.  The  some- 
what lower  rating  on  general  health  for  women  is  a  characteristic  sex 
difference  that  has  been  found  also  for  men  and  women  in  general7 
Statistics  show  that  among  females  as  a  whole  morbidity  is  higher,  while 
among  males  the  mortality  rate  is  higher.  We  have  already  seen  in 
Table  5  that  the  mortality  rate  for  the  gifted  men  is  higher  at  each  age 
than  that  for  the  gifted  women. 

The  questionnaires  of  1950-52  and  1955  did  not  ask  for  informa- 
tion on  height  and  weight.  However,  the  medical  examinations  and 
anthropometric  measurements  that  were  made  following  the  selection 
of  the  subjects  in  the  original  survey  showed  the  gifted  children  as  a 
group  to  be  above  the  best  standards  for  American-born  children  in 
growth  status  as  indicated  by  both  height  and  weight.  The  records 
showed  that  they  were  also  above  the  established  norms  for  unselected 
California  children.39  According  to  the  information  supplied  by  the 
subjects  in  1940,  the  median  height  of  the  adult  gifted  men  was  71.3 
inches  and  of  the  adult  gifted  women,  65 . 2  inches.  The  average  weight 
of  the  men  was  162 . 8  pounds  and  of  the  women,  126 . 6  pounds.  After 
making  allowance  for  some  overstatement  in  the  self-report,  it  was 
estimated  that  the  gifted  men  average  about  one-half  inch  taller  than 
college  men  in  general  and  about  one  and  one-half  inches  taller  than 
the  generality  of  men  in  the  United  States  of  their  generation.  Simi- 
larly, gifted  women  average  close  to  one-half  inch  taller  than  college 
women  in  general  and  approximately  one  inch  taller  than  women  in  the 
total  population.  The  relationship  of  weight  to  height  appears  to  be 
about  the  same  in  the  gifted  as  in  the  total  population.36 

Physical  defects  sufficient  to  handicap  the  individual  seriously  are 
infrequent  among  our  subjects.  Nine  men  are  crippled,  but  only  one 
case  is  sufficiently  serious  to  be  disabling ;  for  most,  the  impairment  is 
no  more  than  a  slight  limp.  In  seven  cases  the  crippling  resulted  from 
poliomyelitis  and  in  the  other  two  cases  it  was  due  to  a  congenital  defect. 
Among  the  women  there  are  seven  cases  of  orthopedic  handicap.  For 
two  of  these  the  difficulty  is  a  congenital  hip  dislocation  which  resulted 
in  some  crippling  but  not  severe  enough  to  prevent  independent  loco- 
motion. Poliomyelitis  has  left  three  other  women  with  slight  muscular 
impairment  but  not  greatly  handicapped.  More  seriously  afflicted  are 
two  women  who  are  confined  to  wheel  chairs,  one  since  childhood  be- 
cause of  crippling  arthritis  and  one  as  a  result  of  poliomyelitis  contracted 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  35 

at  age  39.  The  former,,  who  holds  a  Ph.D.,  is  a  distinguished  scholar, 
writer,  and  university  professor.  The  latter,  a  lawyer  with  a  well- 
established  practice  (and  also  a  housewife  and  mother)  when  disabled, 
resumed  her  career  as  soon  as  possible  and  is  continuing  her  law  prac- 
tice besides  managing  her  home  from  her  wheel  chair. 

MENTAL  HEALTH  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT 

The  gifted  subjects  have  been  rated  on  mental  health  and  general 
adjustment  at  various  stages  of  follow-up.  The  most  important  sources 
of  information  have  been  the  personal  conferences  by  the  research  staff 
with  the  subjects,  their  parents,  and  their  spouses;  letters  from  the 
subjects  or  members  of  their  families,  or  other  qualified  informants; 
and  responses  to  questionnaires  filled  out  by  the  subjects  and,  in  the 
earlier  years,  by  their  parents  also.  The  information  schedules  in  the 
follow-up  surveys  of  1936,  1939-40,  1945,  1950-52,  and  1955  all  in- 
cluded the  question :  "Has  there  been  any  tendency  toward  nervous- 
ness, worry,  special  anxieties  or  nervous  breakdown  in  recent  years? 
.  .  .  nature  of  such  difficulties  .  .  .  ."  From  1940  on,  this  item  was 
supplemented  by  a  question  on  how  the  difficulty,  if  any,  was  handled 
and  on  the  present  condition  of  the  subject.  Each  specific  kind  of  in- 
formation obtained  was  considered  in  the  light  of  total  case  history. 

With  these  accumulated  data  at  hand  the  mental  health  and  general 
adjustment  of  each  subject  was  assessed  and  the  subjects  classified 
according  to  three  categories  as  follows:  1,  satisfactory  adjustment, 
2,  some  maladjustment,  and  3,  serious  maladjustment.  The  third  cate- 
gory was  divided  into  two  sub-groups :  3a,  serious  problems  in  ad- 
justment but  not  severe  enough  to  require  hospitalization,  and  3^  a 
history  of  hospitalization  for  mental  illness.  These  categories  corre- 
spond to  those  used  for  the  1940  and  1945  ratings36  and  are  defined 
as  follows : 

1.  Satisfactory.  Subjects  classified  in  this  category  were  essentially 
normal;  i.e.,  their  "desires,  emotions,  and  interests  were  compatible 
with  the  social  standards  and  pressures"  of  their  group.23  Everyone, 
of  course,  has  adjustment  problems  of  one  kind  or  another.  Satisfac- 
tory adjustment  as  here  defined  does  not  mean  perfect  contentment 
and  complete  absence  of  problems  but,  rather,  the  ability  to  cope  ade- 
quately with  difficulties  in  the  personal  make-up  or  in  the  subject's 
environment.  Worry  and  anxiety  when  warranted  by  the  circum- 
stances, or  a  tendency  to  be  somewhat  high  strung  or  nervous — pro- 


36  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

vided  such  a  tendency  did  not  constitute  a  definite  personality  problem 
— were  allowed  in  this  category. 

2.  Some  maladjustment.  Classified  here  were  subjects  with  exces- 
sive feelings  of  inadequacy  or  inferiority,  nervous  fatigue,  mild  anxiety 
neurosis,  and  the  like.  The  emotional  conflicts,  nervous  tendencies,  and 
social  maladjustments  of  these  individuals,  while  they  presented  defi- 
nite problems,  were  not  beyond  the  ability  of  the  individual  to  handle, 
and  there  was  no  marked  interference  with  social  or  personal  life  or 
with  achievement.    Subjects  whose  behavior  was  noticeably  odd  or 
freakish,  but  without  evidence  of  serious  neurotic  tendencies,  were  also 
classified  in  this  category. 

3.  Serious  maladjustment. 

a)  Classified  as  3a  were  subjects  who  had  shown  marked  symp- 
toms of  anxiety,  mental  depression,  personality  maladjustment,  or  psy- 
chopathic personality.  This  classification  also  includes  subjects  who 
had  suffered  a  "nervous  breakdown,"  provided  there  had  not  been  a 
mental  disorder  of  sufficient  severity  to  require  hospitalization.  Sub- 
jects with  a  previous  history  of  serious  maladjustment  or  so-called 
nervous  breakdown  were  included  here  even  though  their  adjustment 
at  the  time  of  rating  may  have  been  entirely  satisfactory. 

ft)  Classified  as  3b  were  those  subjects  who  at  any  time  had 
suffered  a  complete  mental  breakdown  requiring  hospitalization,  what- 
ever their  condition  at  the  time  of  rating.  In  the  majority  of  cases  the 
subjects  were  restored  to  reasonably  good  mental  health  after  a  brief 
period  of  hospital  care. 

[NOTE:  Attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  ratings  3a  and  3b  are 
historical  in  character;  i.e.,  if  a  person  has  ever  been  seriously  mal- 
adjusted as  defined  above,  the  3  rating  (a  or  b,  according  to  degree) 
continues  to  be  used  even  though  he  may  now  be  greatly  improved 
or  even  free  from  difficulty.] 

Results  of  ratings.  In  1955  there  was  sufficient  information  on 
hand  to  rate  the  mental  health  and  general  adjustment  of  approxi- 
mately 98  percent  of  the  1,396  living  subjects  with  whom  contact  had 
been  maintained.*  For  the  remaining  21  men  and  11  women  some 

*  The  1955  ratings  are  a  composite  of  the  data  collected  in  the  1950-52  field 
follow-up  and  the  1955  follow-up  by  mail.  Since  the  1950-52  data  are  more  extensive, 
they  formed  the  basis  for  the  rating.  In  1955  these  ratings  were  brought  up  to  date, 
and  any  changes  in  status  are  shown  in  the  ratings  presented  here.  The  28  subjects 
who  had  been  "lost"  since  1928  or  earlier  are  not  included  in  the  total  of  1,396  sub- 
jects. 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  37 

information  was  available  but  it  was  felt  the  data  were  not  sufficiently 
complete  to  permit  a  definitive  rating.  However,  on  the  basis  of  what 
was  known  about  these  subjects  and  their  activities,  there  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  any  had  been  hospitalized  for  mental  disorder.  Part  I 
of  Table  8  gives  the  ratings  for  the  subjects  who  were  living  and  for 
whom  data  on  mental  health  and  general  adjustment  were  adequate ; 
in  Part  II  of  the  table  the  remainder  of  the  original  group  is  ac- 
counted for. 

TABLE  8 
RATINGS  ON  MENTAL  HEALTH  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT 

Men  Women 


N         %  N        % 

Part  I.  Rating 

1.  Satisfactory 525    68.8  396    65.9 

2.  Some  maladjustment 170    22.3  151    25.1 

3.  Serious  maladjustment 

a)  Without  mental  disease* 47      6.2  36      6.0 

6)  Hospitalization  for  mental  illness,.      21      2.7  18      3.0 

Total  rated  763  601 

Part  II.  Not  Rated  m  1955 

A.  Information  not  complete  enough  for 

rating,  but  no  record  of  hospitaliza- 
tion  for  mental  illness 21  11 

B.  Deceased  before  1955 62  42 

C.  No  contact  since  1928  or  earlier  and  no 

information  regarding  status  of  sub- 

ject 11  17 

Total  group,  living  and  deceased    857  671 

*  Mental  disease  is  defined  as  hospitalization  for  mental  illness.  (C£.  discussion  on  pp.  41- 
42.) 

Of  the  763  men  and  601  women  rated  for  general  adjustment,  better 
than  two-thirds  of  the  men  and  close  to  two-thirds  of  the  women  were 
considered  satisfactory  in  adjustment.  Somewhat  more  than  one-fifth 
of  the  men  and  one-fourth  of  the  women  were  rated  in  category  2  and 
the  9  percent  of  each  sex  who  had  experienced  serious  difficulty  were 
classified  in  category  3.  When  this  latter  category  is  broken  into  sub- 
groups, we  find  that  6  percent  fall  in  the  3  a  group,  that  is,  a  history  of 
serious  maladjustment  but  without  reaching  the  severity  of  a  mental 
breakdown.  The  approximate  3  percent  classified  as  3b  all  had  a  his- 
tory of  hospitalization  for  mental  illness.  The  percentages  in  the  3& 
category  would  be  somewhat  reduced  if  the  21  men  and  11  women  of 


38  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

Part  II-A  of  Table  8  were  included  in  the  total  number.  Although  not 
enough  was  known  about  these  additional  cases  to  rate  them  on  gen- 
eral adjustment,  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  has  been  hospitalized  for 
mental  illness. 

As  indicated  in  the  definitions,  ratings  of  "some"  or  "serious"  mal- 
adjustment were  given  on  the  basis  of  total  case  history  data  and  do 
not  necessarily  represent  the  current  status  of  the  subject.  This  method 
of  rating  was  used  to  show  the  extent  to  which  our  group  had  suffered 
from  problems  of  personality  or  emotional  adjustment  regardless  of 
whether  the  difficulty  had  been  overcome.  It  is  important,  therefore, 
to  view  the  ratings  on  adjustment  in  the  light  of  the  estimates  of  "pres- 
ent condition"  called  for  in  the  Information  Blank  as  a  supplement  to 
the  question  regarding  nervous  and  emotional  difficulties.  Information 
on  present  condition  was  available  for  235  men  and  202  women,  or  all 
but  3  men  and  3  women  among  those  who  were  rated  either  2  (some 
maladjustment)  or  3  (serious  maladjustment).  Although  self-estimates 
of  this  kind  are  subject  to  error,  the  replies  were  checked  against  the 
field  worker  reports  and  other  case  history  data  for  verification  and  only 
occasionally  was  it  necessary  to  modify  the  response  of  the  subject.  In 
the  few  cases  in  which  the  subject  omitted  a  reply  to  the  query  on  present 
condition,  the  information,  if  available  from  other  sources,  was  sup- 
plied. The  estimates  of  present  condition  for  subjects  rated  2  or  3  were 
distributed  as  follows : 

Percentages 

Present  Condition  Men  Women 

Free  from  difficulty 21  16 

Improved  55  68 

No  change 20  12 

Worse 4  4 

It  is  especially  interesting  to  find  that  of  the  39  subjects  living  in 
1955  who  had  undergone  hospitalization  for  mental  illness,  28  rate  their 
present  condition  as  improved,  and  2  report  themselves  as  free  from 
difficulty.  Another  4  of  those  rated  3b  say  there  has  been  no  change, 
and  5  rate  their  condition  as  "worse." 

So  far  our  discussion  of  general  adjustment  has  been  limited  to 
subjects  who  were  living  in  1955  and  who  could,  therefore,  be  rated 
on  general  adjustment.  However,  to  get  the  full  picture  of  the  gifted 
group  from  the  standpoint  of  mental  health,  account  should  be  taken 
of  the  subjects  who  have  died.  In  view  of  the  wide  range  in  date  of 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  39 

death  (1923  to  1954)  and  age  at  death  (8  years  to  48  years),  it  would 
not  be  practical  to  attempt  to  classify  the  deceased  according  to  the 
mental  adjustment  categories ;  however,  those  with  a  history  of  hos- 
pitalization  can  be  used  in  an  extension  of  category  3b  to  include  the 
deceased.  Of  the  104  subjects  who  had  died  by  1955,  five  men  and  four 
women  had,  at  some  time,  been  patients  in  a  mental  hospital.  When 
the  62  deceased  men  and  42  deceased  women  are  added  to  the  number 
of  each  sex  rated  (Part  I,  Table  8),  the  results  are  as  follows  for  the 
825  men  and  643  women,  living  and  deceased,  whose  status  could  be 
evaluated : 

Men  Women 

N         %  N  % 

No  record  of  hospitalization  for  mental  illness 799    96.9       621    96.6 

History  of  hospitalization 26      3.1         22      3.4 

Subjects  with  a  history  of  mental  disorder.  The  figures  of  3 . 1  per- 
cent for  men  and  3.4  percent  for  women  include  all  subjects,  whether 
presently  living  or  deceased,  who  have  ever  been  admitted  to  a  hospital 
or  sanitarium  for  the  care  of  the  mentally  ill  regardless  of  the  serious- 
ness of  the  illness  or  the  length  of  the  hospitalization.  In  most  cases 
the  illness  was  comparatively  mild  and  the  hospitalization  brief,  some 
less  than  three  months,  few  more  than  a  year.  However,  there  have  been 
7  cases  of  prolonged  hospitalization.  These  included  2  epileptics,  both 
men,  one  of  whom  died  in  the  hospital  at  the  age  of  30.  He  had  suf- 
fered from  epilepsy  most  of  his  life  but  the  illness  did  not  become  dis- 
abling until  he  was  about  20  years  old.  Before  hospitalization  became 
necessary  he  had  completed  one  and  one-half  years  of  college  work. 
In  the  case  of  the  second  man,  the  onset  of  epilepsy  in  recognizable 
form  took  place  after  college  graduation  just  as  he  was  embarking  on 
a  professional  career.  After  a  brief  hospitalization  he  was  able  to  take 
a  clerical  job  and  worked  for  some  years.  Apparently  recovered,  he 
returned  to  the  university  for  a  year  of  graduate  work  with  the  purpose 
of  re-entering  his  chosen  profession.  However,  a  recurrence  of  the 
epilepsy  sent  him  back  to  the  hospital.  The  next  few  years  saw  him  in 
and  out  of  hospitals  and  working  at  simple  occupations  when  able. 
Finally  the  illness  became  so  severe  that  institutional  care  became  neces- 
sary and  he  has  now  been  hospitalized  for  nearly  ten  years. 

A  third  man,  hospitalized  for  three  and  one-half  years  as  a  schizo- 
phrenic, was  recently  released.  While  he  has  not  fully  recovered,  it  was 
felt  that  his  improvement  was  sufficient  to  permit  home  care. 


40  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

The  4  women  with  prolonged  illness  include  one  now  age  40  who 
became  ill  when  she  was  a  university  student  and  was  sent  to  a  private 
sanitarium  where  she  has  been  for  the  past  twenty  years.  The  diag- 
nosis was  dementia  praecox  and  at  last  report  the  outlook  for  ultimate 
recovery  was  poor.  Another  woman  who  had  completed  her  education, 
married,  and  had  2  children,  was  stricken  with  encephalitis  at  the  age 
of  31  with  resulting  brain  damage  so  serious  that  she  has  been  inca- 
pacitated ever  since  her  illness  nearly  fifteen  years  ago.  The  third  of 
the  4  women  with  prolonged  illness  presents  a  brighter  picture.  This 
woman,  who  is  unmarried,  completed  college  with  an  excellent  record. 
Several  years  of  successful  employment  followed  until  her  first  break- 
down at  age  29,  After  three  mental  breakdowns  with  brief  hO'Spitaliza- 
tions,  her  condition  became  so  much  more  serious  that  she  was  com- 
mitted to  a  state  hospital  with  a  diagnosis  of  dementia  praecox,  paranoid 
type.  During  her  twelve-year  stay  in  the  hospital  she  was  able,  with 
the  exception  of  occasional  brief  periods,  to  do  secretarial  and  library 
work  with  great  efficiency.  By  19S4  her  mental  health  had  so  improved 
that  she  was  released  from  the  hospital  on  a  home-care  basis.  Her 
ultimate  discharge  will  depend  on  how  full  and  permanent  her  recovery 
proves  to  be. 

The  fourth  woman  requiring  lengthy  hospitalization  went  into  a 
state  hospital  after  six  weeks  in  a  private  sanitarium.  She  was  then 
32  years  old,  single,  with  two  years  of  college  education,  and  had  been 
employed  as  a  secretary  for  a  number  of  years.  The  diagnosis  was 
dementia  praecox,  mixed  type.  After  nearly  three  years  in  the  hospital 
she  was  released  only  to  have  a  recurrence  three  years  later,  which 
again  necessitated  hospitalization.  A  year  later  she  was  discharged  and, 
so  far  as  is  known,  has  had  no  further  relapses. 

Except  for  alcoholism  in  the  case  of  men,  the  manic-depressive  states 
have  been  the  most  frequent  type  of  disorder.  The  frequencies  of  the 
various  kinds  of  mental  illness  classified  according  to  primary  diagnosis 
where  available  were  as  follows : 

Men          Women 

N  N 

Alcoholism    10  3 

Epilepsy 2 

Manic-depressive  state 7  8 

Psychoneurosis 5  4 

Schizophrenia  (dementia  praecox) 2  6 

Traumatic  brain  lesion 1 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  41 

In  all  but  one  case  (reported  directly  from  the  attending  physician  in  a 
personal  communication)  our  information  on  the  nature  of  the  illness 
has  come  from  the  subject  or  a  close  family  member,  and  the  diagnosis 
often  but  not  always  confirmed  by  medical  authorities.  In  the  hospital- 
ized cases  reported  simply  as  "nervous  breakdown"  or  similarly,  we  are 
especially  uncertain  of  the  nature  of  the  illness  and,  lacking  full  informa- 
tion for  these  cases,  we  have  classified  them  under  the  heading  of  psy- 
choneurosis.  The  total  number  of  hospitalizations  is  so  small  that  per- 
centages have  not  been  computed  for  the  various  mental  disease  classi- 
fications, since  they  would  not  be  comparable  to  the  proportions  in  the 
various  mental  illness  categories  for  hospital  admissions  in  general.  A 
comparison  with  the  generality  of  admissions  would  also  be  distorted 
by  the  age  range  of  our  group.  As  one  would  expect,  we  have  no  cases 
of  organic  psychoses  resulting  from  vascular  disease  characteristic  of 
later  life. 

The  ages  at  hospitalization  (first  admission  if  more  than  one)  for 
the  subjects,  both  living  and  deceased,  with  a  history  of  mental  illness 
were  distributed  as  follows : 

Men  Women. 

Age  in  Years  N  N 

10-19 2 

20-29 6  6 

30-39 15  8 

40-49 5  6 

The  IQ's  of  these  subjects  ranged  from  140  to  180  and  their  schooling 
varied  from  high-school  graduation  to  several  years  of  university  gradu- 
ate work.  All  but  6  of  the  men  had  had  some  college  work  and  14  had 
graduated  from  college.  The  latter  included  3  men  with  an  M.D.  and 
4  with  an  LL.B.  degree.  Eleven  of  the  women  were  college  graduates 
and  3  had  also  taken  a  graduate  degree.  Another  8  women  attended 
college  for  from  one  to  three  years  and  2  had  only  a  high-school  educa- 
tion. In  addition,  there  are  2  subjects  (1  man  and  1  woman)  among 
those  hospitalized  who  died  before  completing  their  education.  Both 
had  taken  approximately  two  years  of  college  work. 

Comparison  of  mental  disease  among  the  gifted  group  with  the  rate 
for  the  generality.  The  criterion  most  widely  used  in  studies  of  the 
frequency  of  mental  disease  in  the  United  States  is  the  number  of  ad- 
missions to  hospitals  for  the  care  of  the  mentally  ill,  since  that  is  the 
only  objective  yardstick  available.  The  term  "expectation  of  mental 


42  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

disease"  is  used  to  describe  the  chances  of  being  hospitalized  (first  time, 
if  more  than  once)  in  an  institution,  either  public  or  private,  for  the 
care  of  the  mentally  ill.  In  contrast  to  the  prevalence  measures  which 
give  the  proportion  of  a  given  population  hospitalized  at  a  specified 
time,  the  expectancy  measure  gives  the  cumulative  probability  of  admis- 
sion to  a  mental  hospital.  This  is  the  sort  of  information  needed  for 
comparison  with  the  rate  of  mental  disease  in  the  gifted  group  where 
the  data  are  also  cumulative. 

Different  methods  of  calculating  the  expectancy  of  mental  disease 
yield  somewhat  different  estimates,  but  careful  investigations  such  as 
those  of  Malzberg26  and  of  Goldhamer  and  Marshall15  indicate  that  8 
to  10  percent  of  the  U.S.  population  will  be  admitted  to  a  hospital  for 
the  care  of  the  mentally  ill  at  some  time  during  their  lives.*  Malzberg's 
expectancy  tables,  which  follow  the  principle  of  the  life  table,  show  that 
of  1,000  population  alive  and  sane  at  10  years  of  age,  85.4  males  and 
85.9  females  will  develop  a  mental  disease.  Goldhamer  and  Marshall 
suggest  a  different  method  of  calculation,  which  gives  first  admission 
expectancy  for  a  member  of  a  particular  population  group  if  he  survives 
to  a  specified  later  age.  This  "conditional  expectancy"  rate  is  in  con- 
trast to  the  Malzberg  data  which  give  a  joint  expectancy,  i.e.,  the  com- 
bined probability  of  survival  and  of  admission  to  a  mental  hospital. 
Both  methods  serve  a  purpose  and  their  relative  merit  cannot  be  evalu- 
ated here.  The  Goldhamer-Marshall  conditional  expectancy  rates, 
however,  are  more  appropriate  to  our  data  and  so  will  be  used  in  the 
following  comparisons  of  the  gifted  with  the  generality. 

According  to  the  conditional  expectancy  tables,  of  those  who  survive 
to  the  age  of  75,  about  1  in  10  persons  will  be  hospitalized.  More  perti- 
nent to  the  current  data  for  our  gifted  group  than  lifetime  expectancies 
of  mental  disease  are  the  chances  of  hospitalization  to  mid-life.  This 
information  also  is  available  in  the  Goldhamer-Marshall  tables  which 
give  the  conditional  expectancy  between  specified  initial  and  later  ages. 
For  comparison  with  the  data  for  the  gifted,  we  have  chosen  the  initial 
age  of  10,f  which  is  near  the  average  age  of  the  subjects  when  selected 

*  Malzberg,  and  Goldhamer  and  Marshall  have  based  their  calculations  of  the 
expectancy  of  mental  disease  on  the  1940  first  admission  rates  to  state  and  licensed 
institutions,  public  or  private,  in  New  York  State.  It  is  believed  that  these  figures 
would  agree  fairly  closely  with  the  expectancy  rates  in  those  areas  where  adequate 
facilities  are  available  for  the  care  of  the  mentally  ill.  California,  in  which  80  percent 
of  our  subjects  reside,  is  one  of  these. 

f  Since  the  Goldhamer-Marshall  data  are  reported  for  quinquennial  ages,  10 
years  is  the  nearest  to  the  average  age  (about  11  years)  of  our  group  when  selected 
for  study. 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  43 

for  study  and  the  terminal  ages  of  40,  45,  and  50.  These  later  ages 
approximate  the  age  distribution  of  the  gifted  subjects  in  1955  when 
the  median  age  was  about  44  years.  Although  the  actual  age  range  in 
the  gifted  group  was  about  20  years,  84  percent  were  born  between  the 
years  1905  and  1915,  inclusive,  and  so  were  between  the  ages  of  40  and 
50  in  1955.  According  to  the  conditional  expectancy  table  the  chances 
in  100  of  admission  to  a  mental  hospital  between  age  10  and  the  speci- 
fied later  ages  for  the  general  population  are  as  follows : 

Percentage  of  General  Population 
Terminal  age  Male  Female 

40 2.8  2.4 

45 3.4  3.0 

50 4.2  3.7 

The  proportion  of  gifted  subjects,  including  the  deceased,  who  had 
been  hospitalized  for  mental  illness  up  to  an  average  age  of  about  44 
years  (1955)  was  3 . 1  percent  for  men  and  3.4  percent  for  women.  A 
comparison  of  these  figures  with  the  Goldhamer-Marshall  data  shows 
the  incidence  among  gifted  men  to  be  slightly  below  the  expectancy  for 
the  male  population  of  comparable  age,  and  among  gifted  women, 
slightly  above  the  expectancy.  Probably  neither  sex  differs  greatly  from 
the  generality  in  the  frequency  of  mental  disease.  One  should  not  over- 
look the  possibility  that  the  rate  of  hospitalization  among  the  gifted 
may  be  related  to  some  extent  to  their  generally  superior  status ;  not 
only  intellectual — which  may  give  them  insight  into  their  needs,  but 
also  socio-economic — which  makes  it  possible  for  them  to  seek  aid.  The 
majority  of  the  hospitalizations  have  been  voluntary  and  a  large  pro- 
portion have  been  in  private  institutions.  On  the  basis  of  Malzberg's 
more  than  8  percent  expectancy  of  eventual  mental  disease  and  the 
Goldhamer-Marshall  approximate  10  percent  expectancy  to  age  75,  it 
is  questionable  if  the  incidence  of  mental  disease  in  the  gifted  group  will 
exceed  the  expectancy  for  the  generality,  particularly  because  of  cer- 
tain inverse  relationships  that  have  been  found  between  educational- 
social-economic  status  and  mental  disease  rate  in  later  maturity.28  To 
equal  the  expectancy,  the  present  incidence  of  slightly  over  3  percent  in 
our  total  group  would  have  to  be  almost  tripled.  Whether  the  extent  of 
mental  disorder  reaches  that  proportion  remains  to  be  seen. 

Suicide  and  mental  disorder.  As  reported  earlier  in  this  chapter, 
10  men  and  5  women  had  committed  suicide  by  1955.  Of  these  15  sub- 
jects, one  man  and  two  women  had  been  hospitalized  for  mental  ill- 


44  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

ness,  and  only  these  three  cases  among  the  suicides  are  considered  to 
have  a  history  of  mental  disease  as  we  have  defined  it.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  death  forestalled  eventual  hospitalization  of  additional  per- 
sons among  the  suicides.  In  other  cases,  however,  although  there  had 
been  indications  of  maladjustment,  the  difficulties  had  not  appeared  to 
be  serious  enough  to  constitute  mental  disease  and  in  two  cases,  both 
women,  there  had  been  no  evidence  of  a  serious  adjustment  problem. 
Opinion  is  divided  among  psychiatric  authorities  as  to  whether  it  is 
only  the  psychotic  individual  who  takes  his  own  life.  Though  many 
leading  psychiatrists  hold  this  opinion,  there  are  others  who  believe 
that  the  "sane"  individual  also  may  commit  suicide.  Dublin  and  Bun- 
zell,11  whose  study  of  suicide  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  field,  feel  that  in 
view  of  the  conflicting  psychiatric  opinions  it  is  extreme  to  assert  that 
all  suicides  are  insane — unless  it  is  assumed  a  priori  that  self-destruc- 
tion is  in  itself  a  definite  indication  of  psychosis.  These  authors  do  not 
concur  in  such  an  assumption,  but  believe,  rather,  that  suicide  does  occur 
among  individuals  who  should  be  designated  as  sane,  even  though  it 
is  a  far  greater  hazard  among  sufferers  from  mental  disease. 

Whether  or  not  suicide  is  considered  a  psychotic  manifestation 
per  se  does  not  affect  our  comparison  of  the  incidence  of  mental  disease 
in  the  gifted  group  with  that  in  the  generality  since,  in  both  cases,  mental 
disease  is  defined  as  admission  to  a  hospital  for  the  treatment  of  the 
mentally  ill. 

Use  of  liquor  among  the  gifted  subjects.  Our  records  show  that  for 
10  men  and  3  women  the  precipitating  cause  of  hospitalization  in  a 
mental  institution  was  alcoholism,  regardless  of  whatever  underlying 
personality  disorders  there  may  have  been.  Furthermore,  among  those 
hospitalized  for  functional  psychoses,  2  men  and  1  woman  had  a  serious 
alcohol  problem  as  well,  although  this  was  not  the  primary  reason  for 
hospitalization.  In  addition  to  the  information  on  alcohol  as  a  problem 
among  the  subjects  with  a  history  of  mental  disease,  considerable  data 
have  also  been  obtained  on  the  extent  to  which  alcohol  is  used  by  the 
group  as  a  whole.  The  General  Information  Blanks  of  1940  and  1950 
included  a  specific  question  on  this  matter  calling  for  the  individual  to 
rate  himself  according  to  several  categories  on  the  use  of  liquor.  In 
1950  this  item  was  presented  in  the  following  form: 

Use  of  Liquor.  (Check  the  statement  below  that  most  nearly  describes  you) 

1  never  take  a  drink,  or  only  on  rare  occasions. 

1  am  a  moderate  drinker.  I  have  seldom  or  never  been  intoxicated. 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  45 

1  am  a  fairly  heavy  drinker;  I  drink  to  excess  rather  frequently 

but  do  not  feel  that  it  has  interfered  seriously  with  my  work  or 
relationships  with  others. 

Alcohol  is  a  serious  problem.  I  am  frequently  drunk  and  attempts 

to  stop  drinking  have  been  unsuccessful. 

A  questionnaire  never  provides  for  all  the  exceptions  and  variations 
found  in  the  responses  given  by  the  individuals.  From  the  comments 
of  the  respondents  to  this  item,  it  was  possible  to  add  a  fifth  category 
to  the  four  presented  in  the  information  blank.  This  category  included 
those  with  a  history  of  excessive  drinking  who  no  longer  drink  at  all 
or  who  drink  only  moderately.  The  classification  of  the  subjects  ac- 
cording to  use  of  liquor  was  based  on  a  composite  of  the  self -ratings, 
the  field  worker  reports,  and  other  pertinent  case  history  information. 
The  results  of  the  ratings  on  use  of  liquor  (as  of  1950-52)  are  given  in 
Table  9. 

TABLE  9 
RATINGS  ON  USE  OF  ALCOHOLIC  DRINKS 

Men  Women 


N  %  N  % 

A.  Never,  or  only  rarely,  take  a  drink  .....  127  16.9  194  32.4 

B.  Moderate  drinker 520  69.0  369  61.7 

C.  Fairly  heavy  drinker 87  11.6  29  4.9 

D.  Alcohol  is  a  serious  problem 10  1.3  3  0. 5 

E.  Formerly  a  serious  problem,  now  under 

control   9  1.2  3  0.5 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  about  17  percent  of  men  and  32  percent 
of  women  never,  or  only  on  rare  occasions,  use  alcoholic  drinks  and  that 
another  69  percent  of  men  and  62  percent  of  women  describe  themselves 
as  moderate  drinkers.  About  12  percent  of  men  and  slightly  more  than 
5  percent  of  women  are  classified  as  heavy  or  problem  drinkers.  Per- 
sons classified  in  categories  D  and  E  of  Table  9  were  considered  to  be, 
or  to  have  been,  alcoholics  in  the  sense  of  the  World  Health  Organiza- 
tion definition  of  alcoholism.*  On  the  basis  of  this  definition,  10  men 
and  3  women  were  rated  as  alcoholics  in  1950-52.  Another  9  men  and 
3  women  had  been  problem  drinkers  in  the  past  but  were  now  able  to 

*  The  definition  adopted  by  the  World  Health  Organization  in  1951  is  as  follows : 
"Alcoholics  are  those  excessive  drinkers  whose  dependence  upon  alcohol  has  attained 
such  a  degree  that  it  shows  a  noticeable  mental  disturbance,  or  an  interference  with 
their  bodily  or  mental  health,  their  interpersonal  relations,  and  their  smooth  social 
and  economic  functioning ;  or  who  show  the  prodromal  signs  of  such  developments." 


46  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

control  the  difficulty.  The  E  category  of  Table  9  includes  3  men  who 
had  been  hospitalized  for  alcoholism.  While  others  in  this  category 
received  psychiatric  or  psychological  aid,  the  majority  attribute  their 
success  in  overcoming  excessive  drinking  to  Alcoholics  Anonymous. 

The  data  in  Table  9  represent  the  status  of  the  group  at  a  particular 
period  of  time  in  contrast  to  the  mental  health  ratings  which  are  his- 
torical in  nature.  It  is  possible,  therefore,  to  compare  the  current  extent 
of  alcoholism  in  our  group  with  figures  for  the  generality.  Jellinek  and 
Keller20  report  that  in  1948  the  rate  of  alcoholism  in  the  United  States, 
as  defined  by  the  World  Health  Organization,  was  3,952  per  100,000 
adult  population  (roughly  4  percent).  The  United  States  rate  was  also 
computed  separately  by  sex  and  showed  an  alcoholism  rate  of  about 
7  percent  for  men  and  slightly  more  than  1  percent  for  women.  The 
highest  rates,  according  to  these  investigators,  are  found  in  Nevada, 
California,  and  New  York.  In  California,  where  approximately  four- 
fifths  of  the  gifted  group  reside,  the  1948  alcoholism  rate  was  6,888 
per  100,000  adult  population  (sexes  combined).  Separate  figures  ac- 
cording to  sex  were  not  reported  for  the  individual  states,  but  on  the 
basis  of  these  figures  it  is  clear  that  the  California  rate  for  each  sex  is 
considerably  higher  than  the  7  percent  of  men  and  1  percent  of  women 
alcoholics  reported  for  the  total  U.S.  population.  In  contrast,  only 
about  1  percent  of  gifted  men  and  one-half  of  1  percent  of  gifted  women 
were  classified  as  alcoholics. 

Crime  and  delinquency.  As  shown  in  our  earlier  report,36  the  inci- 
dence of  crime  and  delinquency  is  very  low.  Three  subjects  (all  boys) 
had  youthful  records  of  delinquency  that  resulted  in  their  being  sent 
to  a  juvenile  reformatory.  In  addition,  one  man  served  a  term  of  sev- 
eral years  in  prison  for  forgery.  All  four  of  these  are  married,  employed, 
and  fulfilling  their  duties  as  responsible  citizens.  Three  other  boys  came 
before  the  Juvenile  Court  for  behavior  difficulties  but  after  brief  deten- 
tion were  released  to  their  parents.  Among  the  gifted  women  only  two 
are  known  to  have  had  encounters  with  the  police.  Both  were  arrested 
for  vagrancy  and  one  served  a  jail  sentence.  Although  each  of  these 
women  has  a  history  of  several  marriages,  both  seem  to  have  become 
much  more  stable  in  recent  years,  and  to  have  made  normal  behavioral 
adjustments. 

Problems  of  sex.  Information  on  sex  problems  is  available  from 
the  various  case  history  reports  and  information  schedules  supplied  by 
subjects,  parents,  and  field  workers  over  the  years  of  follow-up.  Espe- 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  47 

daily  pertinent  were  the  questionnaires  on  personality  and  tempera- 
ment (1940)  and  marital  adjustment  (1940  and  1950),  and  particularly 
the  Supplementary  Biographical  Data  blank  filled  out  in  the  1950-52 
follow-up.  This  blank  included  a  direct  question  regarding  sex  prob- 
lems, worded  as  follows :  "Either  in  childhood  or  later  have  there  been 
any  major  problems  or  marked  difficulties  related  to  sex?" 

Of  those  who  filled  out  this  blank,  78  percent  of  men  and  77  per- 
cent of  women  indicated  the  absence  of  any  serious  sex  problems.  The 
problems  mentioned  by  the  remaining  22  or  23  percent  of  the  group 
covered  a  wide  range  over  both  the  nature  and  the  gravity  of  the  diffi- 
culty. The  most  frequent  problem  was  that  of  sexual  adjustment  in 
marriage,  mentioned  by  4. 6  percent  of  men  and  6. 5  percent  of  women. 
For  approximately  the  same  number  of  men  (4.5%),  the  problem  in- 
volved shyness,  awkwardness,  fear  of  failure,  or  rebuff  in  relations  with 
the  opposite  sex,  but  less  than  2  percent  of  women  mentioned  this  prob- 
lem. Aversion  to-  sex  or  feelings  of  guilt  constituted  a  sex  adjustment 
problem  for  4  percent  of  women  and  1  percent  of  men.  Masturbation 
was  mentioned  as  having  been  a  source  of  difficulty  (chiefly  in  child- 
hood and  adolescence)  by  4  percent  of  men  and  2  percent  of  women. 
About  2  percent  of  both  men  and  women  reported  concern  about  a  high 
degree  of  sex  drive  (considered  it  above  average)  while  an  equal  num- 
ber of  men  and  somewhat  more  women  (3.5%)  felt  that  their  problem 
was  a  lack  or  decline  of  sex  drive  and  interest.  Other  factors  mentioned 
as  making  adjustment  difficult  were  lack  of  sex  education  (less  than  1% 
of  men  and  slightly  more  than  1  %  of  women)  and  early  sex  experience 
or  sex  shock  in  childhood  or  youth  (0 . 3  %  of  men  and  1 . 3  %  of  women) . 
Except  for  homosexuality,  the  other  problems  listed  were  relatively 
minor  and  none  was  cited  by  more  than  1  percent  of  either  sex. 

The  sex  problems  so  far  discussed,  though  presenting  difficulty  for 
the  individual,  have  not  been  of  the  dimensions  to  constitute  an  aber- 
ration or  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  adjustment  for  the  individual. 
Homosexuality,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  deviation  of  such  serious  pro- 
portions involving  both  personal  and  social  adjustment  that  its  inci- 
dence in  the  gifted  group  has  been  reserved  for  separate  discussion. 
Our  concern  here  is  with  subjects  who  have  had  homosexual  experi- 
ences and  for  whom  heterosexual  adjustment  has  been  difficult  or  im- 
possible. Homosexuality,  thus  defined,  has  been  reported  for  17  men 
(2%)  and  11  women  (1.7%).  Undoubtedly,  there  are,  in  addition, 
instances  of  latent  homosexuality  in  which  there  has  been  no  overt  ex- 


48  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

pression  or  even  recognition  of  the  tendency.  Estimates  of  the  preva- 
lence of  homosexuality  in  the  general  population  vary,  but  all  authori- 
ties put  the  incidence  well  above  that  found  in  our  study.  The  most 
recent  and  best  known  investigation  of  sex  behavior  is  that  of  Kinsey 
and  his  associates21  who  report  that  25  percent  of  the  male  population 
between  ages  16  and  55  have  more  than  incidental  experience  and  that 
4  percent  of  white  males  are  exclusively  homosexual  throughout  their 
lives.  Kinsey  finds  homosexuality  much  less  common  among  females 
with  an  estimated  frequency  of  from  one-half  to  one-third  of  that  re- 
ported for  males.  The  figures  for  both  sexes  in  the  general  population 
give  an  incidence  many  times  that  found  for  the  gifted  subjects.  In 
contrast  to  Kinsey's  report,  that  homosexuality  occurs  among  25  per- 
cent of  males  and  8  to  12  percent  of  females,  only  2  percent  of  gifted 
men  and  1 . 7  percent  of  gifted  women  are  known  to  be  presently  homo- 
sexual or  to  have  had  homosexual  experiences.  It  is  possible  that  a 
very  few  cases  have  escaped  our  notice ;  however,  our  data  are  so  com- 
plete that  these  few,  if  there  are  any,  would  not  increase  the  incidence 
of  homosexuality  significantly. 

Ten,  or  somewhat  more  than  half,  of  the  17  gifted  men  classified  as 
homosexual  are  exclusively  so.  These  include  9  who  are  overt  homo- 
sexuals, and  except  for  one  case,  none  of  these  men  has  ever  married. 
In  the  one  case,  the  marriage  was  of  short  duration  and  ended  in  di- 
vorce. Another  man,  well  aware  of  his  basic  homosexuality,  has  ab- 
stained from  overt  manifestation.  He  has  found  an  outlet  in  a  highly 
successful  career  in  the  arts,  and  appears  to  have  achieved  an  effective 
sublimation  of  his  homosexuality.  Six  of  the  17  men  with  a  homosexual 
history  have  married  and  have  made  a  reasonably  satisfactory  hetero- 
sexual adjustment.  The  remaining  man,  though  he  had  not  married, 
was  reported  to  be  making  a  successful  transition  to  heterosexuality 
when  he  was  killed  in  an  accident. 

All  but  one  of  the  11  women  in  the  gifted  group  who>  have  had 
homosexual  experiences  have  married,  and  six  of  the  marriages  are 
apparently  successful.  In  two  cases  the  marriage  broke  up  within  a  very 
short  time  and  the  women  resumed  a  homosexual  pattern  of  life.  An- 
other woman  has  had  three  unsuccessful  marriages  and  at  last  report 
was  living  as  a  homosexual.  One  of  the  women  who  was  married  briefly 
has  long  been  a  mental  patient  and  is  reported  by  the  hospital  as  an 
overt  homosexual.  The  remaining  woman  has  never  married  but  has 
had  heterosexual  as  well  as  homosexual  experiences. 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  49 

There  is  no  doubt  that  homosexuality  has  interfered  with  the  per- 
sonal and  social  adjustment  of  these  persons.  For  four  men  and  two 
women,  alcohol  became  a  serious  problem,  resulting  in  hospitalization 
for  two  of  the  men  and  both  women.  On  the  other  hand,  at  least  5  of 
the  male  homosexuals  are  rated  among  our  vocationally  most  success- 
ful men. 

Relation  of  general  adjustment  to  education  and  intelligence.  Be- 
cause only  about  one-half  of  those  who  have  suffered  from  mental  dis- 
ease are  college  graduates  in  contrast  to  the  nearly  70  percent  of  the 
total  group  who  completed  college,  a  relationship  between  general  ad- 
justment and  amount  of  education  among  the  gifted  might  be  suspected. 
In  the  case  of  men,  at  least,  this  indication  is  not  borne  out  by  the  com- 
plete record.  A  comparison  of  the  extent  of  schooling  with  general 
adjustment  rating  shows  practically  no  difference  for  men  at  three  levels 
of  education.  Actually,  what  difference  there  is  favors  the  men  who 
did  not  go  to  college.  The  college  graduates  and  the  group  who  attended 
college  one  or  more  years  without  graduating  have  almost  precisely 
the  same  proportion  of  satisfactory  ratings.  For  the  women,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  evidence  that  the  present  status  of  those  who  did 
not  go  to  college  or  who  entered  but  did  not  complete  college  is  less 
satisfactory  with  respect  to  general  adjustment  than  that  of  the  college 
graduates.  Table  10  compares  the  ratings  on  general  adjustment  ac- 
cording to  educational  level. 

TABLE  10 
GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  RATING  ACCORDING  TO  AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION 

Men  Women 

College        College  1  No  College         College  1  No 

General  Graduates     to  4  years        College        Graduates      to  4  years        College 

Adjustment       (N  =  536)    (N  =  127)    (N  =  100)    (N  =  401)     (N  =  99)     (N  =  101) 
Rating  %%%%%% 

1.  Satisfactory  .    68.9          68.5  73.3          69.2  57.8  57.6 

2.  Some  malad- 

justment..   22.8          20.7  22.1  24.1  26.7  30.6 

3.  Serious  malad- 

justment..     8.3  10.8  4.6  6.7  15.5  11.8 

In  spite  of  the  lack  of  relationship  of  schooling  to  general  adjust- 
ment for  men  and  the  tendency  for  the  women  with  less  education  to 
be  less  well  adjusted,  there  is  a  significant  positive  relationship  between 
scores  on  our  difficult  test  of  intelligence  (Concept  Mastery  test)  and 
general  adjustment  rating.  This  is  true  even  though  Concept  Mastery 


50  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

test  scores  tend  to  increase  with  amount  of  education  (see  Chapter  V). 
The  difference  in  mean  score  between  those  rated  satisfactory  and  those 
with  some  or  serious  difficulty  in  adjustment  is  significant  for  both 
sexes  (P=  .001  for  men  and  .01  for  women).  Table  11  gives  the 
mean  Concept  Mastery  score  according  to  the  three  general  adjustment 
categories  for  the  551  men  and  453  women  who  took  this  test  in  1950-52. 

TABLE  11 

MEAN  CONCEPT  MASTERY  TEST  SCORE  ACCORDING  TO 
GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  RATING 

_          ,  .  ,.  Men  Women 

General  Adjustment 


Rating                              N    Mean  Score  S.D.  N     Mean  Score  S.D. 

1.  Satisfactory  391      136.4  26.2  303      130.8      27.7 

2.  Some  maladjustment  ....  120      145.6  26.1  117      138.1      26.4 

3.  Serious  maladjustment  ..      40      152.8  23.8  33      140.0      29.6 

SUMMARY 

When  the  data  on  general  adjustment  are  reviewed,  we  find  a  small 
but  fairly  consistent  sex  difference  in  the  direction  of  more  maladjust- 
ment among  gifted  women  than  among  the  men  of  our  group.  These 
sex  differences  must  be  interpreted  with  caution,  especially  where  com- 
parisons are  made  with  the  generality.  The  relatively  small  number  of 
gifted  subjects  involved  magnifies  the  importance  of  each  case  in  com- 
paring the  incidence  of  various  problems  in  our  group  with  that  re- 
ported for  the  total  population.  With  these  qualifications,  a  discussion 
of  the  sex  differences  follows. 

A  slightly  larger  proportion  of  women  than  men  have  suffered  a 
mental  disorder  serious  enough  to  require  hospitalization  (3.4%  of 
women  and  3.1%  of  men).  In  the  incidence  of  suicide,  although  the 
pattern  agrees  with  that  for  the  total  population  in  which  more  men 
than  women  commit  suicide,  the  sex  difference  in  rate  is  considerably 
less  for  the  gifted  than  that  found  for  the  general  population.  In  the 
country  as  a  whole,  the  suicide  rate  for  males  is  three  to  four  times  that 
for  females;  among  the  gifted,  the  rate,  proportionately,  is  less  than 
twice  as  high  for  men  as  for  women. 

The  problem  of  small  numbers  confronts  us  in  comparing  the  sex 
difference  in  excessive  use  of  alcohol.  The  10  men  and  3  women  who 
could  be  considered  alcoholics  in  1950,  according  to  the  World  Health 
Organization  definition,  constitute  1.3  percent  of  men  and  0.5  per- 


MORTALITY,  HEALTH,  AND  GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  51 

cent  of  women.  These  figures  indicate  a  frequency  three  times  as  great 
for  gifted  men  as  that  for  gifted  women.  On  the  other  hand,  authori- 
ties20 report  that  in  the  total  U.S.  population  alcoholism  is  found  6  to 
7  times  more  frequently  among  men  than  among  women.  The  same 
difficulty  with  numbers  occurs  in  evaluating  the  extent  of  homosexual- 
ity, where  17  men  (2.0%)  and  11  women  (1.7%)  are  known  to  be 
or  to  have  been  homosexual.  In  contrast  to  this  small  difference,  Kin- 
sey22  estimates  for  the  generality  that  homosexuality  is  from  one-half 
to  one-third  less  frequent  among  females  than  among  males. 

In  crime  and  delinquency,  on  the  other  hand,  the  women  have  a  con- 
siderably better  record  than  do  the  men.  None  has  been  in  prison  and 
none  in  reform  school,  though  two  are  known  to  have  been  arrested 
for  vagrancy. 

In  the  broader  areas  of  the  relationship  of  general  adjustment  to 
education  and  intelligence  test  scores,  we  find  some  additional  sex  dif- 
ferences. Considerably  more  women  than  men  who  discontinued  their 
schooling  below  the  college  graduate  level  are  rated  as  having  either 
some  or  serious  difficulty  in  adjustment.  There  is  no  sex  difference, 
however,  in  the  general  adjustment  ratings  of  college  graduates.  The 
data  on  the  relation  of  intelligence  test  scores  to  general  adjustment 
are  not  consistent.  For  the  childhood  Binet  IQ,  maladjustment  among 
women  is  more  frequent  at  the  highest  level  (IQ  170  and  above)  but 
there  is  no  difference  in  adjustment  rating  according  to  IQ  level  for 
men.  In  Concept  Mastery  scores,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sex  difference 
is  in  the  other  direction.  Although  the  less  well-adjusted  of  both  sexes 
score  higher  on  the  average  than  do  those  rated  satisfactory,  the  differ- 
ences in  score  according  to  adjustment  rating  are  greater  for  men. 


CHAPTER  V 

INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT 
MID-LIFE 


The  measure  of  adult  intelligence  has  been  regarded  as  an  essential  and 
fundamental  part  of  the  follow-up  program  in  our  longitudinal  study 
of  intellectually  superior  children.  It  is  as  important  to  know  the  rela- 
tionship between  adult  intelligence  and  early  mental  status  as  it  is  to 
compare  the  adult  gifted  subjects  with  both  the  general  population  and 
selected  populations  in  intellectual  ability.  The  first  adult  testing  was 
undertaken  in  the  1939-40  follow-up  when  the  subjects  averaged  29.5 
years  of  age.  A  test  was  needed  that  could  be  administered  to  a  group 
in  a  brief  period,  that  was  sufficiently  difficult  to  differentiate  at  a  very 
high  level,  and  that  would  yield  a  statistically  reliable  measure  of  in- 
tellectual functions  similar  to  those  brought  into  play  by  the  Stanford- 
Binet  Scale  and  other  tests  highly  saturated  with  Spearman's  "g" 
(general  intelligence) . 

THE  CONCEPT  MASTERY  TEST 

Because  there  was  no  suitable  test  available,  it  was  decided  to  con- 
struct one  that  would  meet  our  requirements.  Before  deciding  upon  the 
content  of  the  proposed  test  we  made  a  survey  of  the  results  yielded  by 
the  leading  types  of  intelligence  tests  :  their  reliabilities,  their  validities 
as  measures  of  "intellect,"  and  their  relative  efficiency  per  unit  of  time, 
As  a  result  of  this  survey  two  types  of  tests  were  chosen :  the  synonym- 
antonym  test  and  the  analogies  test.  A  large  battery  of  items  was  given 
to  a  group  of  136  university  students  and  an  item  analysis  of  the  test 
results  yielded  190  items  which  discriminated  reliably  between  the  top 
and  bottom  half  on  the  basis  of  total  score  of  the  population  tested.  The 
1939  test  in  its  final  form  was  divided  into  two  parts,  each  arranged 
according  to  order  of  difficulty.  Part  I  Synonym-Antonym  consisted 
of  120  pairs  of  words  to  which  the  subject  responds  with  "same"  or 
"opposite,"  and  Part  II  Analogies  was  made  up  of  70  statements  in 
which  the  subject  chooses  the  fourth  term  of  the  equation  from  a  choice 

52 


INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE  S3 

of  three  responses.  There  is  no  time  limit ;  however,  those  for  whom 
the  test  is  applicable  usually  complete  it  in  from  thirty  to  forty  min- 
utes. 

Both  the  synonym-antonym  test  and  the  analogies  test  are  of  the 
type  commonly  designated  as  "verbal."  They  are  not  as  exclusively 
linguistic,  however,  as  they  appear  to  be.  It  is  possible  to  devise  verbal 
tests  that  measure  not  only  vocabulary  but  a  wide  variety  of  informa- 
tion. In  the  selection  of  items,  an  effort  was  made  to  tap  as  many  fields 
as  possible  by  the  use  of  concepts  related  to  physical  and  biological 
science,  mathematics,  geography,  history,  logic,  literature,  art,  religion, 
music,  sports,  et  cetera.  The  test  has  been  named  the  Concept  Mastery 
test  because  it  deals  chiefly  with  abstract  ideas.  Abstractions  are  the 
shorthand  of  the  higher  thought  process,  and  a  subject's  ability  to  func- 
tion at  the  upper  intellectual  levels  is  determined  largely  by  the  num- 
ber and  variety  of  concepts  at  his  command  and  on  his  ability  to  see 
relationships  between  them. 

It  should  go  without  saying  that  neither  this  nor  any  other  test  of 
intelligence  measures  native  ability  uninfluenced  by  schooling  and  other 
environmental  factors.  Like  other  group  intelligence  tests  of  the  ver- 
bal type,  its  scores  are  probably  more  influenced  by  such  factors  than 
are  scores  on  the  Stanford-Binet.  Although  no  amount  of  educational 
effort  can  furnish  the  naturally  dull  mind  with  a  rich  store  of  abstract 
ideas,  it  is  obvious  that  one's  wealth  of  concepts  must  inevitably  reflect 
in  some  degree  the  extent  of  his  formal  education,  the  breadth  of  his 
reading,  and  the  cultural  level  of  his  environment.  The  surprising  thing 
is  that  despite  such  influences  there  are  subjects  in  our  gifted  group 
with  only  a  high-school  education  who  score  as  high  on  the  Concept 
Mastery  test  as  others  who  have  taken  graduate  degrees  in  superior 
universities  and  are  successful  lawyers,  doctors,  and  college  teachers. 

Another  merit  of  the  Concept  Mastery  test  is  that  it  measures  power-- 
rather than  speed.  Several  studies  have  shown  that  the  speed  of  mental 
processes  declines  more  in  middle  and  later  maturity  than  does  the  level 
of  power.  Chess  champions,  for  example,  may  retain  most  of  their 
superb  playing  ability  to  an  advanced  age — a  type  of  ability  that  de- 
mands a  high  degree  of  constructive  imagination  and  abstract  reason- 
ing. Verbal  abilities,  even  more  notably,  tend  to  survive  the  hazards- 
of  age.  Sward's  professors  emeriti  in  the  sixties  and  seventies  scored 
as  high  in  a  difficult  vocabulary  test  as  his  matched  group  of  young 
university  teachers  ages  twenty-five  to  thirty-five,32  Specialized  skills 


54  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

often  atrophy  from  disuse,  but  one's  thinking"  all  life  long  involves  the 
manipulation  of  concepts.  The  ability  to  deal  with  concepts  is  there- 
fore one  of  the  fairest  measures  of  intellectual  power  from  middle  age 
onward,  provided  cultural  opportunities  have  not  been  unduly  limited. 
This  test  has  been  described  at  length  in  Chapters  XI  and  XII  of  The 
Gifted  Child  Grows  Up.36 

During  the  course  of  the  1939-40  follow-up  the  Concept  Mastery 
test  was  administered  to  954  gifted  subjects  and  to  527  of  their  spouses. 
For  comparative  purposes  the  test  was  also  given  to  six  additional 
groups  comprising  466  subjects.  Although  there  appeared  to  be  some 
drop  in  IQ,  as  estimated  from  the  CMT  scores,  beyond  the  expected 
statistical  regression  due  to  errors  of  measurement  and  failure  of  the 
childhood  and  adult  tests  to  measure  the  same  functions,  the  gifted 
group  at  a  mean  age  of  about  30  years  was,  on  the  average,  still  within 
the  98th  or  99th  percentile  of  the  generality.  Furthermore,  compari- 
son of  the  CMT  scores  of  the  gifted  subjects  with  those  of  other  groups 
tested  showed  the  former  to  rank  far  above  the  average  level  of  ability 
of  students  in  top-ranking  universities. 

For  the  retesting  of  the  group  in  the  1950-52  follow-up,  a  second 
form  of  the  Concept  Mastery  test*  was  devised.  Tests  of  reliability 
and  validity  show  the  second  form  (Form  T)  to  be  as  good  as,  and  prob- 
ably superior  in  many  ways  to,  the  1939  test  (later  designated  as 
Form  A).  For  the  preliminary  item  selection,  a  battery  of  435  new 
items  plus  the  190  from  Form  A  were  given  to  764  subjects  at  four 
educational  levels.  These  included  214  ninth-grade  students,  222 
twelfth-grade  students,  219  college-undergraduate  students,  and  109 
graduate  students.  As  in  Form  A,  items  were  selected  on  the  basis  of 
the  extent  to  which  they  discriminated  between  the  upper  and  lower 
half  on  the  basis  of  total  score  of  the  populations  tested.  The  tryout 
batteries  made  it  possible  not  only  to  select  the  items  for  Form  T  with 
confidence  in  their  validity  and  degree  of  difficulty,  but  also  to  match 
Form  T  with  Form  A  items  for  both  difficulty  and  content.  Form  T 
differs  from  Form  A,  however,  in  the  addition  of  easier  items  extend- 
ing the  scale  downward,  and  in  the  elimination  of  some  of  the  excess 
top  in  Form  A.  The  surplus  of  top  in  Form  A  was  limited  to  the  syno- 
nym-antonym section  in  which  the  10  or  15  most  difficult  items  were 


^  revision  was  published  in  1956  by  The  Psychological  Corporation, 

New  York  City,  as  the  Concept  Mastery  Test—-  Form  T  and  will  be  referred  to  as 
Form  T  in  this  volume.   In  prior  publications  this  form  is  referred  to  as  Form  B. 


INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE  55 

so  seldom  answered  that  they  contributed  little  to  the  test.  Additional 
items  at  the  lower  end  of  the  scale  in  both  sections  were  needed  to 
measure  adequately  the  less  highly  selected  groups  with  which  it  was 
desired  to  compare  the  gifted,  as  well  as  to  allow  for  possible  regres- 
sion with  age  of  the  gifted  subjects  themselves.  Ten  easier  synonym- 
antonyms  and  5  easier  analogies  were  added  to  Form  T,  and  15  of  the 
most  difficult  synonym-antonyms  were  eliminated.  The  final  Form  T 
scale  consists  of  190  items,  115  synonym-antonyms,  and  75  analogies.* 
Evidence  of  the  reliability  of  the  Concept  Mastery  test  was  obtained 
by  correlating  Form  T  with  Form  A.  Test-retest  data  were  available 
for  four  groups  who  took  both  forms.  Group  1  consisted  of  108  Stan- 
ford University  undergraduates,  and  40  graduate  students  and  teach- 
ing assistants  at  the  University  of  California.  Group  2  included  341 
Air  Force  captains  tested  by  the  Institute  of  Personality  Assessment 
and  Research  of  the  University  of  California.  The  768  gifted  subjects 
and  the  334  spouses  of  the  gifted  who  took  both  forms  made  up  Groups 
3  and  4.  For  the  first  two  groups  the  interval  between  test  and  retest 
was  from  one  day  to  one  week,  with  the  order  of  presentation  of  the 
two  forms  being  alternated.  In  the  case  of  the  gifted  subjects  and  their 
spouses  the  reliability  coefficients  were  obtained  from  a  comparison  of 
the  Form  A  scores  of  1939-40  with  the  Form  T  scores  of  1950-52  for 
those  individuals  who  took  the  CMT  at  both  times.  The  time  interval 
between  testings  for  the  last  two  groups  was  from  11  to  12  years.  As 
shown  in  Table  12,  the  test-retest  correlations  for  these  various  groups 
ranged  from  .94  to  .86.  Since  Form  A  was  a  slightly  more  difficult 
test  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  reliability  coefficients  are  somewhat 

TABLE  12 

CORRELATIONS  BETWEEN  FORMS  A  AND  T  OF  THE 
CONCEPT  MASTERY  TEST 

Form  A  Form  T 


Group  N  r          Mean          S.D.         Mean         S.D. 

Undergraduate  and  Graduate 

Students   and   Teaching 

Assistants  (Stanford  and 

University  of  California)  148  .94  74.6  36.5  95.6  39.4 

Air  Force  Captains 341  .86  42.8  24.5  60.2  31 .3 

Subj ects  of  Gifted  Study  ...  768  .87  96.9  29.8  136.7  28.5 
Spouses  of  Gifted  Subjects..  334  .92  62.1  35.2  95.3  42.7 

*  As  stated  earlier,  Form  A  also  contained  190  items ;  however,  the  synonym- 
antonyms  numbered  120  and  the  analogies  70. 


56  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

lower  than  would  be  found  in  correlating  two  comparable  forms  of  the 
Concept  Mastery  test. 

SCORES  OF  THE  GIFTED  SUBJECTS  AND  THEIR  SPOUSES 

During  the  1950-52  follow-up  the  Concept  Mastery  test*  was  ad- 
ministered by  the  field  workers  to  a  total  of  1,004  gifted  subjects  and 
690  spouses  of  the  gifted.  Table  13  gives  the  distributions  of  scores  with 
means  and  standard  deviations  separately  for  men  and  women  of  the 
gifted  and  spouse  groups. 

TABLE  13 

CONCEPT  MASTERY,  FORM  T  SCORES  OF 
GIFTED  SUBJECTS  AND  THEIR  SPOUSES 

Gifted  Subjects  Spouses  of  Gifted  Subjects 

Score  Interval        Men        Women      Total  Husbands    Wives       Total 

180-189 16            4          20  314 

170-179 60          31          91  48  12 

160-169 76          46         122  18           13  31 

150-159 84          62         146  20           18  38 

140-149 68          71         139  17          20  37 

130-139 73          60         133  25           25  50 

120-129' 54           52         106  23           25  48 

110-119 34          42          76  23           33  56 

100-109 30          23          53  15          36  51 

90-99 20          25          45  11           35  46 

80-89 13           18          31  19           31  50 

70-79 9            9          18  23           31  54 

60-69 9            5           14  21           32  53 

50-59 246  18          26  44 

40-49 314  13           37  50 

30-39 11           14  25 

20-29 5           16  21 

10-19 37  10 

0-9 ..             6  6 

-10to-l 134 

N 551         453      1,004  273         417  690 

Mean 139.4      133.4      136.7*  102.6       90.5  95.3* 

SJ>... 28.8       27.7       28.5  42.4       42.2  42.7 

*  Coincidentally,  in  spite  of  the  sizable  difference  in  N's,  the  mean  CMT  scores  for  the 
total  gifted  and  spouse  groups  as  given  in  this  table,  and  the  corresponding  means  given  in 
Table  12  for  those  among  the  total  who  took  both  forms  of  the  test,  are  identical. 

One-half  of  the  gifted  subjects  made  a  score  of  141  or  better;  the 
median  for  men  was  144  and  for  women,  138.  About  2  percent  of  the 
gifted  (16  men  and  4  women)  had  scores  in  the  180-189  interval  (per- 

*  Unless  otherwise  indicated,  the  Concept  Mastery  scores  referred  to  in  the 
following  discussion  are  Form  T  scores. 


INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE  57 

feet  score  equals  190),  and  10  subjects,  a  scant  one  per  cent,  scored 
below  60.  The  scores  of  the  spouses  ranged  from  minus  8*  to  189  with 
half  of  the  husbands  scoring  above  108  and  half  of  the  wives  about  92. 
For  both  the  subjects  and  their  spouses  the  mean  scores  were  slightly 
lower  than  the  medians,  and  the  standard  deviations  were  approxi- 
mately 28  for  the  gifted  and  43  for  the  spouses.  The  sex  differences  in 
mean  score  for  the  gifted  and  spouse  groups,  though  comparatively 
small,  are  statistically  significant,  with  critical  ratios  of  3.4  for  the 
gifted  and  3 . 6  for  the  spouses.  The  spouse  group,  in  spite  of  an  aver- 
age score  about  one  standard  deviation  below  that  of  the  gifted  sub- 
jects, are  themselves  a  superior  group  as  is  shown  in  a  comparison  of 
the  data  in  Tables  15,  16,  and  17. 

RELATIONSHIP  OF  CONCEPT  MASTERY  SCORES 
TO  EARLY  TESTS 

A  comparison  of  the  Concept  Mastery  scores  earned  by  the  gifted 
subjects  in  195CM52  with  their  childhood  Binet  IQ  shows  a  progression 
in  Concept  Mastery  mean  scores  corresponding  to  increase  in  Binet  IQ 
level.  Of  the  1,004  gifted  subjects  who  took  the  Concept  Mastery,  703 
had  been  selected  in  the  original  survey  of  1921-22  by  a  Stanford-Binet 
test.  Table  14  gives  the  mean  score  and  standard  deviation  on  the  Con- 
cept Mastery  for  these  subjects  classified  according  to  their  childhood 
Binet  IQ.  Despite  the  attenuating  effects  of  age  when  first  tested  and 
despite  the  additional  attenuation  due  to  the  highly  curtailed  distribu- 
tion of  the  childhood  IQ's,  there  is  nevertheless  a  positive  correlation 
of  .29  between  Binet  scores  in  childhood  and  Concept  Mastery  scores* 
30  years  later.  The  differences  in  mean  CMT  scores  at  the  various 
Binet  IQ  levels  are  highly  significant  as  determined  by  the  F  ratio 

(p=<.ooi). 

RELATIONSHIP  OF  CONCEPT  MASTERY  SCORES 
TO  EDUCATION 

There  is  also  a  positive  relationship  between  Concept  Mastery  score 
and  the  level  of  education.  An  increase  in  score  with  increase  in  amount 
of  education  is  to  be  expected  in  a  test  of  mental  ability  because  of  the 
corresponding  increase  in  degree  of  selection  on  the  basis  of  intelli- 
gence at  the  higher  educational  levels.  It  should  be  noted  also  that  a 

*  Below  zero  scores  result  from  too  many  wrong  guesses  (score  equals  rights 
minus  wrongs)  and  may  be  regarded  as  zero  scores. 


58  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  14 

CONCEPT  MASTERY  SCORES  ACCORDING  TO 
CHILDHOOD  STANFORD-BINET  IQ 

Concept  Mastery  Test 
BinetlQ  N  Mean  S.D. 

170  and  above. 48  155.8  23.1 

160-169 70  146.2  26.2 

150-159 200  136.5  29.0 

140-149 344  131.8  28.6 

135-139 41  114.2  33.3 

test  of  the  type  and  level  of  difficulty  of  the  Concept  Mastery  cannot  be 
entirely  free  from  the  influence  of  schooling.  Table  15  gives  the  mean 
scores  and  standard  deviations  for  the  CMT  according  to  the  amount 
of  education  for  both  the  gifted  subjects  and  their  spouses,  and  Table  16 
gives  the  corresponding  data  for  a  group  of  333  Air  Force  captains.* 

TABLE  15 

CONCEPT  MASTERY  SCORES  ACCORDING  TO  EDUCATIONAL  LEVEL 
FOR  GIFTED  SUBJECTS  AND  THEIR  SPOUSES 

Spouses  of  Gifted 
Gifted  Subjects  Subjects 

Educational  Level  N       Mean      S.D.  N        Mean     S.D. 

Ph.D 51  159.0  19.3  12  148.7  27.8 

M.D 35  143.6  23.2  18  123.9  27.8 

LL.B 73  149.4  20.7  20  126.5  37.5 

Master's  or  equivalent  degree  151  144.3  25.4  47  130.8  32.5 
Graduate  study  one  or  more 

years  without  degree 122  143.0  26.9  50  119.7  33.8 

Bachelor's  degree  only 263  135.7  26.6  192  105,0  38.0 

All  college  graduates 695    140.9    26.0         339    114.6    37.8 

College  1-4  years 163    128.7    29.7         164     84.6    36.9 

No  college 146    118.4    28.5         187     68.6    38.0 

TABLE  16 

CONCEPT  MASTERY  SCORES  ACCORDING  TO  EDUCATIONAL  LEVEL 
FOR  AIR  FORCE  CAPTAINS 

Educational  Level  N  Mean  S.D. 

College  graduation 66  73.0  36.2 

College  1-4  years 131  60.5  32.3 

High-school  graduation 121  56 . 7  26 . 8 

Less  than  high-school  graduation  ...  15  34.5  19.7 

*  These  men  constitute  Group  2  of  Table  12  and  Group  10  of  Table  17  and  are 
described  on  page  59.  Information  on  schooling  was  lacking  for  11  of  the  total  344 
officers  tested. 


INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE  59 

Although  the  educational  attainments  of  the  Air  Force  group  are  con- 
siderably lower  than  those  of  the  gifted  subjects  and  their  spouses,  a 
relationship  is  still  apparent  between  CMT  mean  scores  and  extent  of 
education.  For  all  three  groups  the  differences  in  mean  scores,  accord- 
ing to  educational  levels,  are  significant  (P  =  <.001). 

COMPARISON  OF  SCORES  YIELDED  BY  THE 
CONCEPT  MASTERY  TEST 

In  order  to  secure  normative  data,  the  Concept  Mastery  test  was 
given  to  a  number  of  subjects  outside  the  gifted  study.  Table  17  gives 
the  mean  scores  and  standard  deviations  for  all  the  various  groups 
tested  including  the  gifted  and  their  spouses.  Brief  descriptions  of  the 
subjects  in  Groups  3  to  10  of  Table  17  follow: 

Group  3 — Graduate  Students  (University  of  California  Institute  of 
Personality  Assessment  and  Research — IPAR).  This  group  was  com- 
posed of  80  senior  medical  school  students  and  81  advanced  graduate  stu- 
dents, all  of  whom  were  within  one  year  of  completing  their  degrees,  for 
the  most  part  the  Ph.D.,  in  the  Graduate  Division,  University  of  California. 

Group  A — Electronic  Engineers  and  Scientists  (Navy  Electronics  Lab- 
oratory). These  subjects  were  tested  in  a  study  of  creativity  made  at  a 
Navy  electronics  laboratory.  All  were  college  graduates  and  about  one- 
third  had  taken  some  graduate  work,  including  several  Ph.D/s. 

Group  5 — Applicants  for  Ford  Foundation  Graduate  Fellowships  in 
Behavioral  Sciences.  This  group  was  composed  of  83  college  seniors  from 
34  colleges  throughout  the  United  States. 

Group  6 — Undergraduate  Students  (Stanford  University  and  Univer- 
sity of  California) .  About  41  percent  were  seniors  and  the  remainder  were 
juniors  and  sophomores. 

Group  7 — Graduate  Students  (University  of  California) .  The  majority 
of  these  students  took  the  CMT  in  connection  with  the  counseling  services 
at  the  University  of  California. 

Group  8 — College  Graduates.  This  was  a  nonstudent  group.  All  had  at 
least  a  bachelor's  degree,  and  9  of  the  total  75  held  graduate  degrees.  They 
were  tested  at  the  University  of  California  Counseling  Center  where  they 
had  sought  vocational  counsel. 

Group  9 — Applicants  for  Admission  to  the  Public  Health  Education  Cur- 
riculum (University  of  California).  This  group  of  college  graduates  from 
various  institutions  was  seeking  admission  to  the  Public  Health  Education 
curriculum,  a  graduate  department. 

Group  10 — Air  Force  Captains  (IPAR).  An  evaluation  study  for  the 
Air  Force  of  captains  who  were  up  for  promotion,  included  the  CMT.  The 
median  age  of  these  men  was  33  years.  The  extent  of  education  in  the  group 
is  reported  in  Table  16. 


60  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  17 

MEDIANS,  MEANS,  AND  STANDARD  DEVIATIONS  OF  CONCEPT  MASTERY  SCORES 
FOR  VARIOUS  GROUPS  TESTED 

Concept  Mastery,  Form  T 


Group  N  Median  Mean  S.D. 

1.  Subjects  of  Gifted  Study 1,004  141  137  28 

2.  Spouses  of  Gifted  Subjects 690  96  95  43 

3.  Graduate  Students  (IPAR)  161  120  118  33 

4.  Electronic  Engineers  and  Scientists 95  92  94  37 

5.  Applicants  for  Ford  Foundation  Fellowships  ..      83  116  118  35 

6.  Undergraduate  Students 309  92  94  33 

7.  Graduate  Students  125  121  119  33 

8.  College  Graduates 75  111  112  32 

9.  Applicants  to  Public  Health  Education  Curricu- 

lum         54  101  97  29 

10.  Air  Force  Captains 344  55  60  32 

A  comparison  of  the  figures  in  Table  17  shows  that  the  gifted  sub- 
jects, regardless  of  the  amount  of  schooling,  far  outdistance  all  the 
other  groups  in  mean  score.  This  is  true  even  though  in  general  there 
is  an  increase  in  CMT  score  with  increase  in  educational  level.  As 
shown  in  Table  IS,  the  mean  CMT  score  for  the  gifted  subjects  who 
have  taken  a  Ph.D.  degree  is  159.  In  contrast,  Group  3  of  Table  17, 
which  is  made  up  of  advanced  graduate  students  at  the  University  of 
California,  had  a  mean  score  of  118.  Of  the  161  men  in  Group  3,  one- 
half  were  in  the  final  year  of  medical  school  and  the  other  half  with 
only  a  few  exceptions  were  within  one  year  of  completing  work  for  a 
Ph.D.  Separately,  the  mean  CMT  score  for  the  80  medical  students 
was  114  and  for  the  81  Ph.D.  students  the  mean  was  122.  It  is  even 
more  interesting  to*  find  from  a  comparison  of  Table  17  with  Table  15 
that  the  146  gifted  subjects  who  did  not  go  to  college  at  all  have  exactly 
the  same  mean  CMT  score,  i.e.,  118,  as  the  advanced  graduate  students 
in  Group  3  of  Table  17. 

The  lowest  scoring  among  the  various  groups  of  subjects  reported 
in  Table  17  are  the  Air  Force  captains  but  this  group,  too,  is  selected 
on  the  basis  of  intellectual  competence  though  less  highly  so  than  the 
other  groups  studied.  In  addition  to  their  current  military  rank  and 
the  fact  that  all  were  candidates  for  promotion,  further  evidence  of  their 
superiority  to  the  generality  is  found  in  their  educational  record.  One- 
fifth  of  this  group  are  college  graduates  and  close  to  two-fifths  attended 
college  for  one  to  three  years.  Considering  their  generally  superior 
educational  and  vocational  status,  it  can  be  assumed  that  the  mean  Con- 


INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE  61 

cept  Mastery  score  for  these  men  would  be  considerably  above  that 
found  for  a  random  sampling  of  the  general  population.  The  differ- 
ence of  77  points  between  the  mean  score  of  the  Air  Force  men  and 
that  of  the  gifted  subjects,  of  whom  only  1  percent  score  as  low  as  the 
mean  of  the  Air  Force  group,  warrants  the  assumption  that  the  gifted 
subjects  would  excel  by  an  even  greater  margin  the  so-far-undetermined 
mean  for  the  generality. 

Unfortunately,  we  have  no  direct  way  of  measuring  the  degree  to 
which  the  gifted  subjects  have  maintained  their  superiority  to  the  gen- 
eral population.  We  lack  a  random  sampling  for  the  CMT  as  well  as 
data  for  comparing  Form  T  scores  with  Stanford-Binet  or  similar 
scores,  other  than  the  data  for  the  gifted  subjects  themselves.  The  1939 
version  of  the  CMT,  Form  A,  however,  was  given  to  a  group  of  college 
students  who  were  also  given  the  1937  Stanford-Binet  and  the  Wechs- 
ler  tests.1  By  statistical  inference  based  on  a  comparison  of  the  CMT 
scores  of  this  college  sample  with  their  standing  on  the  Stanford-Binet 
and  the  Wechsler  tests,  it  was  estimated  that  the  1939-40  Concept 
Mastery  scores  of  the  gifted  subjects  were,  on  the  average,  2.5  S.D/s 
above  the  mean  of  the  general  population. 

THE  MAINTENANCE  OF  INTELLECTUAL  ABILITY* 

Although  we  are  not  able  to  determine  accurately  the  amount  of 
change,  if  any,  in  the  intellectual  status  of  the  gifted  subjects  since  their 
selection  in  childhood  solely  on  the  basis  of  ability  to  score  within  the 
top  one  percent  of  the  generality  on  a  standardized  intelligence  test, 
we  are  able  to  compare  the  status  of  the  gifted  group — and  of  their 
spouses  as  well — at  two  different  testings  with  the  Concept  Mastery 
Test :  Form  A  in  1939-40  and  Form  T  in  1950-52. 

In  order  to  secure  equivalent  scores  for  Forms  A  and  T,  both  forms 
were  given,  either  in  immediate  succession  or  at  one-week  intervals, 
to  148  subjects.  Form  A  was  given  first  to  half  of  the  subjects  and 
Form  T  first  to  the  other  half.  This  sample  was  composed  of  108 
Stanford  undergraduates  and  40  graduate  students  and  faculty  mem- 
bers at  the  University  of  California.  After  correction  for  practice  ef- 
fects, the  transformation  by  "line  of  equivalents"  was  made  and  a 
conversion  table  set  up  by  which  Form  T  scores  could  be  converted 

*  The  data  to  be  discussed  liere  are  from  a  detailed  study  of  the  changes  in 
intellectual  status  with  age  among  the  gifted  subjects  and  their  spouses.  This  study, 
made  by  Nancy  Bayley  and  Melita  Oden,  is  reported  in  "The  Maintenance  of  Intel- 
lectual Ability  in  Gifted  Adults,"  in  the  Journal  of  Gerontology.* 


62  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

into  Form  A  equivalents.  These  equated  scores  will  be  referred  to  as 
T(e)  scores.  For  this  sample  of  148  the  correlation  between  the  two 
forms  is  .  94. 

In  the  follow-up  of  1939-40  the  Concept  Mastery,  Form  A  had 
been  given  to  954  gifted  subjects  and  527  spouses  of  the  gifted  and  in 
the  1950-52  follow-up  Form  T  was  given  to  1,004  gifted  and  690 
spouses.  There  were  768  gifted  subjects  (422  men  and  346  women) 
and  335  spouses  (144  husbands  and  191  wives)  who  took  both  Form  A 
and  Form  T.  The  elapsed  time  between  the  two  testings  was  from  11 
to  12  years.  The  average  age  of  the  subjects  at  the  earlier  testing  was 
29.5  years  and  at  the  later  testing  it  was  approximately  41.5  years. 
The  average  age  of  the  spouses  was  about  the  same — 41,2  years  at 
the  1950-52  follow-up.  The  test-retest  correlations  for  the  11-  to  12- 
year  interval  are  all  high.  For  both  gifted  men  and  gifted  women  the 
Form  A  scores  correlated  .88  with  the  Form  T(e)  scores.  In  the  case 
of  the  spouses,  both  husbands  and  wives,  the  correlation  between  A 
and  T(e)  scores  was  .92.  Such  difference  as  there  is  between  the  cor- 
relations for  the  gifted  and  the  spouses  can  be  accounted  for  by  the 
greater  variability  in  scores  of  the  less  highly  selected  spouse  group. 

Table  18  gives  the  Form  A  and  Form  T(e)  mean  scores  and  stand- 
ard deviations  separately  by  sex  for  those  gifted  subjects  and  spouses 
of  the  gifted  who  took  both  forms  of  the  Concept  Mastery.  The  data 
show  that  the  scores  of  both  the  gifted  and  the  spouse  groups  were  con- 
sistently higher  at  the  second  testing  when  the  subjects  were  approxi- 
mately 12  years  older.  The  increases  in  score  for  each  of  the  subgroups 
were  highly  significant  statistically,  the  level  of  significance  being  bet- 
ter than  .001  in  every  instance.  Table  18  includes  also  the  mean  score 
and  S.D.  for  the  gifted  men  and  women  who  were  tested  once  only  on 
the  CMT  (either  Form  A  or  Form  T).  A  comparison  of  the  CMT 
scores  of  the  twice-tested  subjects  with  the  scores  of  those  tested  only 
once  indicates  that  the  twice-tested  are  typical  of  the  total.  The  in- 
creases in  mean  score  from  Form  A  to  Form  T(e)  range  from  11.4 
points  for  the  wives  of  gifted  men  to  16.3  points  for  the  gifted  men. 
The  gifted  women  improved  their  score  by  15.5  points  and  their  hus- 
bands increased  14.9  points  on  the  average.  In  interpreting  these 
increases  the  reader  is  cautioned  that  a  line  of  equivalents  based  on 
148  cases  is  bound  to  have  some  sampling  errors  and  these  estimates 
of  change  have  to  be  regarded  as  approximations. 

Although  the  general  trend  was  toward  an  increase  in  score  on  re- 
test,  not  all  of  the  gifted  showed  a  gain  from  A  to  T(e)  scores.  A  few 


INTELLECTUAL  STATUS  AT  MID-LIFE  63 

TABLE  18 
COMPARISON  OF  TEST-RETEST  SCORES  ON  THE  CONCEPT  MASTERY  TEST 

Form  A  Form  T(e)  ^^f" 

Twice-tested  N        Mean       S.D.          N       Mean        S.D.     A^TCe) 

Gifted  men  422  98.6  30.8  422  114.9  26.2  16.3 

Gifted  women 346  94.9  28.5  346  11Q.4  25.3  15.5 

Husbands 143  65.3  34.5  143  80.2  39.0  14.9 

Wives 191  59.8  35.1  191  71.2  39.2  11.4 

Tested  Once  Only 

Gifted  men 95*    98.2      33.8      129    117.0      30.0      18.8 

Gifted  women 73*    90.0      27.6      107    105.4      26.7      15.4 

*  10  men  and  8  women  not  included  had  died  in  the  interval  between  1940  and  1951. 

subjects,  about  6  percent,  lost  more  than  5  points,  but  except  for  two 
cases  none  of  the  losses  was  greater  than  20  points.  The  man  with  the 
greatest  drop  (26  points)  on  the  retest  had  scored  within  the  top  one 
percent  for  gifted  men  on  Form  A  and  in  about  the  top  18  percent  on 
Form  T  and,  thus,  was  still  well  above  the  average  of  the  gifted  group. 
Since  this  man  held  a  Ph.D.  degree  and  was  a  college  instructor,  it 
seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  lower  score  on  Form  T  was  due 
to  some  accidental  circumstance  at  the  time  of  testing  rather  than  to  a 
true  change  in  intellectual  ability.  The  woman  with  the  greatest  loss 
from  Form  A  to  Form  T(e)  had  scored  20  points  (nearly  two-thirds 
of  an  S.D.)  below  the  mean  for  the  gifted  on  Form  A  and  was  more 
than  2  S.D.'s  below  the  mean  on  Form  T.  She  had  one  year  of  college 
work  and  a  brief  business  course.  Married  and  the  mother  of  two  chil- 
dren, she  has  been  employed  for  many  years  in  clerical  work.  She  has 
few  interests  outside  her  home  and  job  and  reports  that  she  does  very- 
little  reading  other  than  the  newspaper  ("usually")  and  popular  maga- 
zines. There  was  little  evidence  of  cultural  interests  in  the  home,  and 
the  subject,  though  cooperative  in  the  gifted  study,  says  she  feels  that 
she  does  not  really  belong  in  the  group. 

An  investigation  of  the  relationship  between  gains  or  losses  in  score 
and  such  factors  as  age,  initial  score,  education,  and  occupation  indi- 
cated that  improvement  occurs  to  about  the  same  extent  at  all  ages,  at 
all  levels  of  ability  tested,  and  in  all  educational  and  occupational  levels 
represented.  The  data  from  the  retests  of  the  gifted  group  and  of  their 
spouses  (also  intellectually  superior  on  the  average  though  less  highly 
selected  than  the  gifted)  give  strong  evidence  that  intelligence  of  the 
type  tested  by  the  Concept  Mastery  test  continues  to  increase  at  least 
through  SO  years  of  age. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  MATTER  OF  SCHOOLING 


The  educational  histories  of  the  gifted  subjects  were  reported  at  length 
in  the  preceding  volume36  of  this  series,  which  covered  the  record  to 
1945.  Since  all  but  a  small  number  had  completed  their  schooling  at 
that  time,  the  data  presented  here  will  (1)  bring  up  to  date  the  amount 
of  schooling,  (2)  summarize  the  academic  records  and  major  fields  of 
study  which  were  reported  in  detail  in  the  earlier  volume,  and  (3)  dis- 
cuss some  of  the  reflections  on  their  education  made  by  subjects  them- 
selves in  the  Supplementary  Biographical  Data  blank  of  1951-52. 

AMOUNT  OF  SCHOOLING* 

The  educational  record  of  the  subjects  is  a  remarkable  one :  87  per- 
cent of  the  men  and  83  percent  of  the  women  entered  college  and  70 
percent  of  men  and  67  percent  of  women  graduated.  Of  those  who  did 
not  go  to  college,  more  than  one-third  of  the  men  and  one-fourth  of  the 
women  had  supplemented  their  high-school  education  with  courses  at 
trade,  business,  technical,  art,  or  other  specialized  schools.  On  the  other 
hand,  approximately  8  percent  of  men  and  12  percent  of  women  did  not 
go  beyond  high  school  and  a  small  number  of  these  (2  men  and  9 
women)  did  not  complete  the  full  high-school  course  or  its  equivalent. 
However,  in  these  latter  cases,  the  failure  to  complete  high  school  was 
chiefly  a  formality.  The  two  men  left  high  school  at  the  end  of  the  third 
year,  one  to  study  music  and  one  to  enter  trade  school.  Three  of  the 
9  women  who  did  not  graduate  from  high  school  were  child  perform- 
ers on  the  stage  or  in  motion  pictures  and  discontinued  their  schooling 
to  study  dramatics  or  dancing.  Another  three  took  a  business  school 
course  after  three  years  of  high  school.  Table  19  gives  the  extent  of 
schooling  to  college  graduation,  by  sex,  for  the  total  group  of  subjects. 

*  Ttie  figures  on  amount  of  schooling,  both  undergraduate  and  graduate,  given  in 
the  text  and  in  Tables  19  and  20  are  for  the  total  group  of  subjects  for  whom  the 
information  was  available.  The  data  are  given  not  only  for  those  living  but  also  for 
the  deceased  subjects  who  had  completed  their  education  before  death.  The  other 
comparisons  In  this  chapter  and  elsewhere  between  amount  of  schooling  and  other 
variables  are  limited  to  subjects  living  at  the  time  the  particular  data  under  discussion 
were  collected. 

64 


THE  MATTER  OF  SCHOOLING  65 

There  has  been  a  slight  increase  in  the  number  of  both  bachelor's  and 
graduate  degrees  in  the  10-year  period  between  1945  and  1955,  ac- 
counted for  chiefly  by  the  completion  of  their  studies  by  those  who  were 
students  at  the  earlier  date.  There  were,  however,  a  few  instances  in 
which  a  subject  who  had  dropped  out  of  college  returned  later  to  take 
a  degree.  The  proportion  of  both  sexes  with  no  formal  schooling  beyond 
high  school  has  remained  about  the  same  since  1940,  although  a  few 
individuals  in  this  category  have  continued  their  studies.  Of  particular 
interest  is  the  case  of  one  man  who  got  his  high-school  diploma  at  the 
age  of  45.  He  had  left  high  school  in  1931  while  in  his  second  year  be- 
cause of  lack  of  interest  and  financial  need.  He  eventually  worked  into 
a  very  good  civil-service  position  for  which  he  was  able  to  qualify  on 
promotional  examinations  even  though  he  lacked  the  requisite  high- 
school  diploma.  In  1955  he  was  awarded  a  high-school  diploma,  earned 
through  attendance  at  evening  classes  in  the  adult  education  program, 
and  he  is  now  planning  university  extension  courses  to  qualify  himself 
for  a  position  in  a  more  technical  or  scientific  field. 

The  record  of  nearly  70  percent  college  graduation  in  our  group  is 
especially  outstanding  when  we  consider  that  this  was  achieved  chiefly 
in  the  decade  1930-40  when  less  than  8  percent  of  the  generality  of 
comparable  age  were  graduating  from  college.  Even  in  these  later  years 
when  the  number  of  college  graduates  has  increased  so  markedly,  the 
record  set  by  the  gifted  subjects  is  far  above  the  12  percent  of  the  pres- 
ent-day youth  who  complete  college.43  Especially  noteworthy  is  the 
number  of  gifted  women  who  are  college  graduates.  As  shown  in 
Table  19,  the  proportion  of  women  graduates  is  almost  as  great  as  the 
proportion  of  men  graduates,  namely,  67  percent  of  women  as  com- 
pared with  70  percent  of  men.  Among  the  generality  of  college  gradu- 
ates, according  to  Wolfle's  estimate  (1953),  the  sex  ratio  is  60  men  to 
40  women. 

The  educational  record  of  the  gifted  subjects  is  even  more  impres- 
sive when  we  consider  the  number  who  have  continued  for  graduate 
study.  Table  20  shows  the  extent  of  graduate  training  completed  and 
the  degrees  taken.  Two-thirds  of  the  men  and  almost  three-fifths  of  the 
women  who  completed  college  entered  graduate  school,  and  56  percent 
of  the  men  and  33  percent  of  the  women  took  one  or  more  advanced 
degrees.  It  should  be  noted  that  more  have  taken  master's  and  pro- 
fessional degrees  than  show  in  Table  20,  since  each  person  appears 
only  at  his  highest  degree.  The  highest  degree  was  most  often  the 


66  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  19 
AMOUNT  OF  UNDERGRADUATE  SCHOOLING 

Men  Women 


N             %  N             % 

College  graduation 579  70.0  429  66.7 

From  1  to  4  years  of  college  (no  degree)  ...     139  16.8  105  16.3 

High  school  plus  special  training 38         4.6  28         4.4 

High  school  graduation 69         8.4  72  11.2 

High  school  not  completed 2         0.2  9         1.4 

Total 827  643 

Deceased  and  education  not  completed  at 

time  of  death 19  11 

Subjects  "lost"  and  information  lacking 11  17 

Total  number  of  subjects  in  study  ....    857  671 

LL.B.3  taken  by  90  men;  next  in  order  of  frequency  was  the  master's 
(87),  followed  by  the  Ph.D.  (80).  The  M.D.  degree  was  taken  by  49 
men,  and  other  professional  degrees  or  diplomas  by  17  men.  In  the  case 
of  women  the  master's  degree  held  by  90  is  the  most  frequent  graduate 
degree.  A  Ph.D.  degree  has  been  taken  by  17  women,  the  M.D.  by  six, 
and  the  LLJB.  by  two.  Other  graduate  degrees  or  diplomas  are  held  by 
28  women.  Slightly  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  men  and  one-fourth  of 
the  women  who  entered  graduate  school  did  not  take  a  graduate  degree. 
In  some  cases  the  advanced  study  was  begun  with  the  idea  of  getting  a 
master's  or  Ph.D.  degree  but  the  students  were  deterred  from  comple- 
tion by  such  circumstances  as  change  of  interests,  lack  of  finances  or, 
more  fortuitously,  an  attractive  job  opening.  Often,  especially  among 
the  women,  the  graduate  work  was  taken  to  qualify  for  a  professional 
credential,  usually  in  teaching,  rather  than  for  a  degree. 

Interesting  comparative  data  on  graduate  study  and  graduate  de- 
grees for  the  college  population  in  general  are  furnished  by  Wolfle43 
who  reports  a  steady  increase  since  1900  in  the  number  of  United  States 
college  graduates  who  enter  graduate  school.  By  1953,  approximately 
one-fourth  of  those  who  received  bachelor's  degrees  proceeded  to  gradu- 
ate study.  Of  these,  about  17  percent  took  a  master's  degree  and  about 
two  percent  a  Ph.D.  or  comparable  doctorate.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
the  gifted  group,  nearly  all  of  whom  had  completed  their  undergraduate 
study  by  1940,  two-thirds  of  men  and  about  three-fifths  of  women  with 
a  bachelor's  degree  entered  graduate  school  and,  as  the  1955  record 


THE  MATTER  OF  SCHOOLING  67 

TABLE  20 

PROPORTION  OF  COLLEGE  GRADUATES  WHO  PROCEED  TO  GRADUATE  STUDY 
AND  DEGREES  TAKEN 

Men  Women 

"N %~"  N  % 

Ph.D.  or  other  doctorate 80  13.8  17  4.0 

M.D.,  M.Sc.D 49  8.5  6  1.4 

LL.B.,  LL.M 90  15.5  2  .5 

Master's  plus  1  or  more  years  of  study 26  4.5  20  4.7 

Master's  degree 61  10.5  70  16.3 

Other  graduate  degrees  or  diplomas 17  2.9  28  6.5 

Graduate  study  for  one  or  more  years  and  no 

degreetaken 63  10.9  107  24.9 

One  or  more  years  of  graduate  work 386       66.7  250        58.3 

Bachelor's  degree  only 193        33.3  179       41.7 

Total  college  graduates 579  429 

shows,  56  percent  of  the  men  and  33  percent  of  the  women  have 
taken  one  or  more  graduate  degrees.  The  most  striking  contrast  is 
seen  in  the  number  of  doctorates :  14  percent  of  gifted  men  and  4  per- 
cent of  gifted  women  (10%  for  the  sexes  combined)  as  compared  with 
the  current  2  percent  of  the  generality  of  college  graduates  (men  and 
women)  who  get  a  doctor's  degree. 

Nor  did  education  end  for  the  gifted  when  they  left  school.  No 
mention  has  been  made  in  either  Table  19  or  Table  20  of  the  large  num- 
ber who  have  participated  in  adult  education  or  workshop  programs 
or  who  are  otherwise  engaged  in  special  study  on  a  noncredit  basis.  In 
addition,  postgraduate  certificates,  licenses,  and  diplomas  have  been 
received  by  a  number  of  subjects  who  qualified  by  examination  for  such 
special  designations  as  Fellow,  American  Board  of  Surgery;  Diploma, 
American  Board  of  Examiners  in  Professional  Psychology;  Fellow, 
American  Institute  of  Architects;  Certified  Public  Accountant;  and 
similar  certifications.  Also  special  study  in  arts,  crafts,  foreign  lan- 
guages, literature,  etc.,  are  frequently  mentioned  among  the  avocational 
interests  of  our  subjects. 

COLLEGE  RECORDS  AND  MAJOR  FIELDS  OF  STUDY 

In  general,  the  academic  record  for  the  college  graduates  was  supe- 
rior, with  78  percent  of  men  and  83  percent  of  women  having  an  average 
grade  of  B  or  better  in  college.  One  or  more  honors  (graduation  cum 
laude,  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  or  Sigma  Xi)  were  won  by  40  percent  of  men 


68  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

and  33  percent  of  women  graduates.  On  the  other  hand,  53  men  and 
10  women  flunked  out  of  college.  Of  these,  24  men  re-entered  and 
graduated  and  IS  continued  for  advanced  degrees,  including  4  Ph.D.'s, 
3  law  degrees,  2  medical  degrees,  and  1  engineering  degree.  Only  one 
woman  of  the  10  who  failed  later  completed  college,  and  she  graduated 
cum  laude.  No  clear  pattern  of  causes  for  college  failure  emerges ;  how- 
ever, the  most  common  explanation  given  by  the  subjects  was  that  in 
high  school  they  had  found  it  so  easy  to  make  high  marks  that  they 
underestimated  the  amount  of  study  necessary  in  college.  A  few  felt 
that  they  had  missed  the  fun  and  social  life  of  high  school,  and  on  enter- 
ing college  devoted  too  much  time  to  extracurricular  student  body  or 
social  activities.  There  were  also  a  good  many  instances  in  which  the 
poor  record  could  be  attributed  to  lack  of  proper  guidance  in  the  selec- 
tion of  a  major  field. 

For  men  the  five  leading  major  fields  were  as  follows  in  order  of 
frequency:  Social  Sciences,  42  percent;  Physical  Sciences,  17  percent; 
Engineering,  IS  percent;  Biological  Sciences,  10  percent;  and  Letters, 
9  percent.  In  the  case  of  women,  although  the  Social  Sciences  led  with 
37  percent,  it  was  by  a  slim  margin.  Letters  was  in  second  place  with 
36  percent.  Next  in  order  for  the  women  were  Education,  9  percent ; 
Biological  Sciences,  6  percent ;  and  Physical  Sciences,  5  percent.  No 
more  than  2  percent  of  either  sex  majored  in  any  of  the  other  fields  of 
study  reported. 

The  most  frequent  major  among  men  who  took  graduate  work  was 
Law,  with  25  percent  of  the  total.  Physical  Sciences  (13%)  and  Engi- 
neering (8%)  combined  were  in  second  place  with  21  percent.  Next 
in  order  of  choice  were  Social  Sciences,  18  percent,  followed  by  Bio- 
logical Sciences,  with  17  percent.  Education  and  Letters  each  claimed 
6  percent.  There  were  no  more  than  3  percent  in  any  other  graduate 
major  field.  For  women  graduate  students  the  five  leading  major  fields 
were  the  same  as  in  the  undergraduate  years  but  the  order  changed. 
The  graduate  majors  and  the  percentage  in  each  are  as  follows :  Social 
Sciences,  32  percent ;  Letters,  28  percent ;  Education,  19  percent ;  Bio- 
logical Sciences,  9  percent ;  and  Physical  Sciences,  5  percent. 

EDUCATION  IN  RETROSPECT 

The  Supplementary  Biographical  Data  blanks  which  the  gifted  men 
and  women  filled  out  in  1951—52  offer  some  interesting  sidelights  on 
the  educational  history  of  our  group.  In  reviewing  their  education  at 


THE  MATTER  OF  SCHOOLING  69 

mid-life,  the  great  majority  reported  themselves  as  satisfied  with  their 
schooling.  When  asked  to  identify  in  a  list  of  10  the  factors  that  had 
contributed  to  their  life  accomplishment,  adequate  education  was  the. 
factor  most  frequently  checked  by  both  sexes  (83%  of  men  and  79% 
of  women).  In  reply  to  the  question :  "Did  you  have  as  much  schooling 
as  you  wanted ?  If  not,  explain"  71  percent  of  men  and  62  percent  of 
women  gave  an  unqualified  "Yes"  and  an  additional  6  percent  of  men 
and  10  percent  of  women  replied  with  a  qualified  "Yes"  such  as  "Yes, 
at  the  time,  but  not  now,"  or  "Yes,  but  the  wrong  kind."  A  small  num- 
ber (1.8%  of  men  and  0.6%  of  women)  stated  only  that  their  school- 
ing was  of  the  "wrong  kind."  The  inability  to  finance  further  school- 
ing was  the  most  frequent  explanation  of  a  "No"  response  (13%  of 
men  and  16%  of  women).  Some  7  percent  of  both  men  and  women  cut 
short  their  schooling  because  of  the  war,  marriage,  lack  of  interest,  or 
lack  of  encouragement.  Finally,  reasons  of  health  were  given  by  a  small 
minority  (2.3%  of  men  and  3.5%  of  women). 

When  we  compare  the  replies  to  this  question  with  the  actual  amount 
of  schooling,  we  find,  as  would  be  expected,  that  the  great  majority  of 
college  graduates  (84%  of  men  and  88%  of  women)  had  as  much  edu- 
cation as  they  wanted.  Some  interesting  sex  differences  appear  among 
those  who  did  not  attend  college  at  all.  Almost  half  of  the  men  who  did 
not  enter  college  felt  that  they  had  had  as  much  education  as  they 
wanted,  while  only  32  percent  of  women  with  no  college  attendance 
were  satisfied  with  their  education.  Table  21  gives  the  distribution  of 
replies  for  three  levels  of  education. 

TABLE  21 

SUBJECT'S  FEELING  ABOUT  AMOUNT  OF  SCHOOLING 
ACCORDING  TO  EDUCATIONAL  ATTAINMENT 


One  to 

College  4  Years  No 

Graduate  College  College 

(N  =  325)  (N  =  77)  (N  =  78) 

80.6  29.9  16.6 

7.1  19.5  15.4 

0.6  ....  1.3 

5.5  33.8  44.9 

1.5  1.3  11.5 

4.7  15.6  10.3 


MEN 

One  to 

College        4  Years 
Did  you  have  as  much     Graduate      College 
schooling  as  you        (N  =  456)  (N  =  80) 
wanted?                       %                 % 

Yes  (unqualified)  ...  80.7         45.0 
Yes  (qualified)  3.7           5.0 
Wrong  kind  1.8           3.8 

No 
College 
(N  =  64) 

28.1 
18.8 

No,  lack  of  finances.  .    6.6         26.2 
No,  lack  of  encourage- 
ment or  motivation    2.2           5.0 
No,  miscellaneous 
reasons  5.0         15.0 

39.1 
9.4 
4.6 

70  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

According  to  the  retrospective  opinions  of  the  subjects  in  the  bio- 
graphical data  blank,  the  attitudes  of  their  parents  had  been  favorable 
to  educational  achievement.  The  subjects  were  asked  to  report  on  their 
parents'  attitude  toward  (a)  school  progress,  (6)  school  work,  (c)  col- 
lege attendance.  Their  replies  are  given  in  Table  22.  In  only  a  few  cases 
did  the  parents  fail  to  give  encouragement  or  to  show  interest  in  the 
school  work  of  these  children.  That  the  parents  of  88  percent  of  men 
and  85  percent  of  women  should  have  encouraged  college  attendance 
for  their  sons  and  daughters  in  the  1920's  and  1930's,  when  so  small 
a  proportion  of  their  classmates  were  continuing  beyond  high  school,  is 
truly  remarkable.  The  fact  that  more  than  twice  as  large  a  proportion 
of  women  as  of  men  say  that  they  were  not  encouraged  to  go  to  college 
because  of  financial  difficulties  can  be  explained  on  the  ground  that  girls 
could  not  be  expected  to  find  ways  to  earn  their  expenses  as  readily  as 
boys,  and  because  of  the  parental  view  that  money  for  a  college  educa- 
tion was  not  as  well  spent  for  girls  as  for  boys.  On  the  other  hand,  more 
than  three  times  as  many  men  as  women  said  that  their  parents  were 
indifferent,  or  left  the  decision  to  the  subject,  or  that  college  attendance 
was  not  considered  in  the  family.  More  than  half  of  the  men  who  re- 
ported this  passive  attitude  on  the  part  of  their  parents,  however,  did 

TABLE  22 

PARENTS*  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  SCHOOLING  OF  THE  GIFTED  SUBJECTS 

Men  Women 

Attitude  of  Parents                                         (N  ^601)  (N  1483) 
(a)  Toward  school  progress 

1.  Encouraged  to  forge  ahead 51 .0  46.2 

2.  Allowed  to  go  own  pace 47.7  52.4 

3.  Heldback 1.3  1.4 

(6)  Toward  school  work 

1.  Demanded  high  marks 12.1  13.8 

2.  Encouraged  or  expected  high  marks 84.6  81 .7 

3.  Little  concern  or  Interest 3.3  4.5 

(c)  Toward  college  attendance 

1.  Encouraged  college 87.7  85.3 

2.  Indifferent ;  decision  left  to  subject 3.7  1.0 

3.  College  not  encouraged  because  of  subject's 
youth,  health,  considered  waste  of  money, 

etc 1.2  1.7 

4.  College  not  encouraged  because  of  limited 

finances 4.3  9.7 

5.  College  not  encouraged — subject  did  not  ex- 
plain         3.2  2.3 


THE  MATTER  OF  SCHOOLING  71 

graduate  from  college,  and  almost  one-fourth  continued  for  graduate 
study. 

As  one  might  expect,  the  great  majority  of  those  who  say  that  they 
were  encouraged  to  go  to  college  by  their  parents  did  so :  84  percent 
of  the  men  and  78  percent  of  the  women  in  this  category  took  a  bache- 
lor's degree,  and  56  percent  of  the  men  and  44  percent  of  the  women 
continued  for  graduate  work.  Among  the  subjects  whose  parents  did 
not  encourage  college,  we  find  that  10  percent  of  men  and  14  percent 
of  women  were  graduated.  Table  23  gives  the  amount  of  education 
according  to  the  parents'  attitude  toward  college  attendance. 

TABLE  23 

AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  PARENTS'  ATTITUDE 
TOWARD  COLLEGE  ATTENDANCE 

Encouraged  Indifferent Not  Encouraged 

Men          Women          Men        Women       Men         Women 
(N  =  527)  (N  =  412)  (N  =  22)  (N  =  5)  (N  =  52)  (N  =  66) 
%  %  %  %  % 

College  graduation 83.5         77.6         50.0    (3 cases)      9.6         13.6 

College  1  to  4  years 11.6         15.6         27.3       23.1          18.2 

No  College 4.9          6.8         22.7    (2 cases)    67.3         68.2 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  feelings  and  opinions  expressed  in 
the  biographical  data  blanks  are  memory  reports.  There  is  no  way  of 
knowing  the  part  that  rationalization  may  have  played  or  the  extent  to 
which  these  opinions  may  have  been  colored  by  later  experiences. 

Another  favorable  circumstance  that  no  doubt  contributed  to  the 
high  rate  of  college  attendance  in  our  group  was  the  superior  educa- 
tional attainments  of  the  parents  themselves.  Approximately  35  per- 
cent of  fathers  and  16  percent  of  the  mothers  held  a  bachelor's  degree 
or  better,  while  11  percent  of  fathers  and  15  percent  of  mothers  had 
attended  college  for  from  one  to  three  years,  often  receiving  a  certifi- 
cate or  professional  degree.  Since  88  percent  of  our  subjects  were  born 
before  1915  and  38  percent  before  1910,  the  schooling  of  the  majority 
of  the  parents  took  place  in  the  1890's  and  early  1900's.  In  contrast, 
Wolfle  reports  that  in  1900  in  the  country  as  a  whole  only  1 . 7  per- 
cent of  persons  of  college  age  graduated  from  college. 

CONCLUSION 

From  the  foregoing  it  is  evident  that  the  educational  attainments 
of  the  gifted  subjects  are  not  only  far  above  those  of  their  contempo- 


72  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

raries  but  also  well  ahead  of  the  present-day  rates  in  terms  of  college 
degrees,  both  undergraduate  and  graduate.  But,  good  as  these  educa- 
tional records  were,  they  could  have  been  better.  The  figures  given  are 
more  significant  when  they  are  read  in  reverse.  All  of  these  subjects 
were  potentially  superior  college  material  yet  more  than  10  percent  of 
the  men  and  more  than  15  percent  of  the  women  did  not  enter  college, 
and  30  percent  of  the  group  did  not  graduate.  Inability  to  finance  col- 
lege and  lack  of  parental  encouragement  were  frequent  causes  of  fail- 
ure to  attend  college,  but  more  often  the  real  cause  was  the  failure  of 
the  high  school  to  recognize  the  gifted  students'  potentialities  and  to 
give  the  needed  encouragement  and  stimulation.37  This  research  has 
not  yielded  a  great  deal  of  information  on  methods  and  techniques  for 
the  education  of  the  gifted  since  the  investigation  was  not  undertaken 
as  a  study  in  the  pedagogy  of  gifted  children,  but  rather  as  a  search  for 
the  basic  facts  necessary  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  gifted  individual 
and  his  potentialities.  Not  until  the  physical  and  mental  characteristics 
and  the  developmental  tendencies  of  intellectually  superior  children 
have  been  definitely  established  is  it  possible  to  plan  intelligently  for 
their  education.  Only  a  very  few  of  the  children  in  this  group  had  en- 
joyed any  special  educational  opportunities  in  the  elementary  or  sec- 
ondary schools  beyond  the  opportunity  to  skip  an  occasional  grade.  As 
a  result  of  this  skipping  the  group  as  a  whole  was  somewhat  acceler- 
ated, with  about  one-half  of  the  boys  and  three-fifths  of  the  girls  gradu- 
ating from  high  school  before  the  age  of  17.  In  fact,  nearly  one-fourth 
of  the  group  completed  high  school  by  age  sixteen  and  one-half  years. 
A  careful  study  of  acceleration  in  the  group  was  made  in  a  search  for 
factors  that  might  be  associated  with  rate  of  school  progress.  Specifi- 
cally, the  accelerated  (defined  as  high-school  graduation  before  age 
sixteen  and  one-half)  were  compared  with  the  nonaccelerates  on  a  num- 
ber of  variables  both  in  childhood  and  in  later  life.  These  results  were 
discussed  in  full  in  Volume  IV  of  this  series.36  In  general,  the  findings 
favored  the  rapidly  promoted  children.  It  was  concluded  that  children 
of  IQ  135  or  higher  should  be  promoted  sufficiently  to  permit  college 
entrance  by  the  age  of  seventeen  at  latest,  and  that  a  majority  in  this 
group  would  be  better  off  to  enter  at  sixteen.  Acceleration  to  this  ex- 
tent is  especially  desirable  for  those  who  plan  to  complete  two  or  more 
years  of  graduate  study  in  preparation  for  a  professional  career. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER 


The  extent  to  which  the  gifted  subjects  in  their  adult  careers  have  ful- 
filled the  promise  of  their  superior  intellectual  endowments  and  educa- 
tional attainments  is  one  of  the  most  significant  aspects  of  this  study. 
Now,  at  mid-life,  at  an  average  age  of  44,  the  subjects  can  be  considered, 
to  be  pretty  well  established  in  their  life  work.  While  promotions  and 
advances  in  both  position  and  income  may  be  expected  for  some  years, 
there  is  not  likely  to  be  much  change  in  field  of  work.  This  is  true  at 
least  for  the  men.  The  occupational  future  of  the  women  is  less  pre- 
dictable. Some  women  now  employed  may  decide  that  they  would 
prefer  more  home  and  family  life  while  some  housewives  may  decide 
on  taking  jobs  as  their  children  grow  older.  Because  the  career  patterns 
and  the  types  of  occupations  of  men  and  women  in  the  gifted  group  are 
so  different,  as  are  those  of  men  and  women  in  general,  their  vocational 
careers  will  be  discussed  separately. 

OCCUPATIONAL  STATUS  OF  MEN 

The  occupations  of  the  employed  men  were  classified  according  to  the 
Minnesota  Occupational  Scale,16  the  same  scale  as  that  used  in  classify- 
ing the  occupations  of  the  gifted  men  in  1940  and  1950.  This  scale  con- 
tains a  list  of  about  350  occupations  which  are  grouped  into  seven  cate- 
gories ranging  from  the  professions  to  unskilled  labor.  We  are  con- 
cerned here  with  Groups  I  to  V  only  since  no  gifted  men  fall  in  either 
Group  VI  (slightly  skilled)  or  Group  VII  (unskilled).  Group  I  is 
limited  to  the  professions,  strictly  defined  to  include  only  vocations  call- 
ing for  a  high  degree  of  specialized  knowledge,  training,  or  creativity. 
Group  IV  includes  all  agricultural  and  related  occupations  regardless 
of  the  scale  of  operations.  The  remaining  three  occupation  groups — 
II,  III,  and  V — cover  occupations  related  to  business,  finance,  and  in- 
dustry as  well  as  the  arts  and  entertainment,  and  the  semiprofessional, 
protective  service,  and  other  nonprofessional  and  nonf  arming  occupa- 
tions. 

73 


74  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

Group  II  is  made  up  of  the  managerial  ranks  in  business  and  indus- 
try, the  officials  in  public  or  private  administration,  and  the  semipro- 
fessional  occupations.  Also  in  Group  II  are  the  men  classified  as  "busi- 
ness professional."  These  are  men  trained  in  the  professions  such  as 
engineers,  statisticians,  accountants,  and  the  like,  who  are  working  in 
the  field  of  business  or  industry.  Group  III  includes  the  owners  and 
managers  of  smaller  businesses,  clerical  and  sales  workers,  skilled  work- 
ers, both  craftsmen  and  foremen,  as  well  as  certain  service  workers. 
From  Group  III  we  move  downward  to  Group  V  which  comprises  the 
minor  clerical  or  minor  business  occupations  and  the  semiskilled  trades. 
Table  24  gives  the  occupational  status  of  the  men  as  reported  in  1955. 

TABLE  24 
OCCUPATIONAL  STATUS  OF  GIFTED  MEN 

A.    Classification  according  to  Minnesota  Occupational  Scale 

N          %  of  Classi- 
fied 


Group  I       Professional    

345 

45  6 

Group  II     Managerial,  official,  and  semiprofessional  
Group  III    Retail  business,  clerical,  skilled  trades,  and 
kindred  ......  

308 
83 

40.7 
10  9 

Group  IV    Agriculture  and  related  occupations  

12 

1  6 

Group  V      Semiskilled  occupations  

9 

1  2 

All  Groups  „  *  .  

757 

B. 

Not  employed,  or  less  than  full-time  employment 
1.   Incapacitated  by  reasons  of  health  

N 
9 

%  o£  Total 
1  1 

2.   Independent  means,  or  retired  

9 

1  1 

3.   Temporarily  not  employed  

2 

0  3 

C. 

1955  occupation  not  ascertained 
(includes  11  men  lost  since  1928  or  earlier)  

18 

2  3 

Total  

795 

More  than  86  percent  of  the  employed  men  are  in  the  professions 
of  Group  I  and  the  higher  business  and  semiprofessional  occupations 
of  Group  II,  and  only  11  percent  are  in  Group  III.  Groups  IV  and  V 
are  very  much  in  the  minority  with  1.6  and  1 .2  percent,  respectively. 
Table  25  gives  the  breakdown  of  the  occupational  groups  and  indicates 
the  percentage  of  employed  men  in  each  subgroup. 

-  The  most  frequent  profession  is  law,  with  10  percent  of  all  gifted 
men  either  practicing  law  or  in  judicial  positions.  An  additional  9  men 
with  the  LL.B.  degree  were  admitted  to  law  practice  but  have  since 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  75 

gone  into  other  occupations.  Next  most  frequent  among  the  professions 
are  members  of  university  faculties  and  these  are  closely  followed  by 
engineers.  Although  the  proportion  of  practicing  physicians  in  Table  25 
is  5  percent,  it  should  be  noted  that  an  additional  6  men  with  the  M.D. 
degree  are  full-time  members  of  university  faculties  and  are  classified 
in  that  category.  The  number  of  clergymen  also  is  not  fully  repre- 
sented in  the  0.9  percent  reported  in  Table  25  since  two  former  minis- 
ters have  joined  college  faculties,  one  at  a  theological  college  and  one  at 
a  secular  university.  Although  these  men  may  occasionally  serve  as 
ministers  they  are  primarily  teachers.  The  1 1  men  in  the  "other  profes- 
sions" include  three  clinical  psychologists,  two  dentists,  two  landscape 
architects,  two  foresters,  one  biologist,  and  one  librarian. 

The  largest  among  the  subgroups  by  a  slight  margin  (1  man)  are  the 
executives  in  business  and  industry  of  Group  II,  with  79  men  as  com- 
pared to  the  78  practicing  lawyers  in  Group  I.  The  addition  of  the  bank- 
ing, finance,  and  insurance  executives  brings  the  business  executive 
representation  to  better  than  16  percent  of  the  employed.  These  two 
leading  Group  II  occupations  are  composed  of  men  having  executive 
and  administrative  responsibilities  in  broad  areas  of  management  and 
on  policy-making  levels.  With  the  exception  of  the  two  higher  business 
occupations  and  the  top  four  professions,  no  other  subgroup  includes 
as  many  as  5  percent  of  the  employed.  As  shown  in  the  list  of  occupa- 
tions in  Table  25,  the  vocational  interests  of  the  gifted  men  have  led 
them  into  many  fields  and  many  kinds  of  work. 

TABLE  25 
BREAKDOWN  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  GROUPS 

N  % 

I.   Professional  occupations 

1.  Lawyers  (include  judges)  78  10.3 

2.  Members  of  college  or  university  faculties 57  7.5 

3.  Engineers 55  7.3 

4.  Physicians  (practicing)   40  5.3 

5.  School  administrator  or  teacher 

(high  school  or  junior  college) 32  4.2 

6.  Chemists  and  physicists 27  3.6 

7.  Authors  or  journalists 17  2.3 

8.  Architects 8  1.1 

9.  Geologists  and  kindred 7  .9 

10.  Clergymen 7  .9 

11.  Economists 6  .8 

12.  Other  professions 11  1.5 


76  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  25— (Continued) 

N  % 

II.   Managerial,  official  and  semiprofessional 

1.  Higher  business 

Executives  and  managers  in  business  and  in  industry  79  10.4 

Executives  in  banking,  finance,  and  insurance 44  5.8 

Accounting,  statistics,  market  research,  et  cetera 35  4.6 

Sales  (sales  managers,  technical,  or  engineering  sales)  24  3.2 

Advertising,  publicity,  public  relations 19  2.5 

Personnel,  labor  relations,  vocational  placement,  and 

kindred 10  1.3 

Building  and  construction  (owners  or  officials) 9  1.2 

Office  manager,  department  head,  et  cetera 12  1.5 

2.  Arts  and  entertainment 

Radio,  television,  or  motion  pictures:  producer,  di- 
rector, writer  21  2.8 

Musician  or  actor 6  .8 

Applied  arts  (illustrator,  commercial  art,  decorator, 

and  kindred)  6  .8 

3.  Semiprofessions 

Draftsman,  surveyor,  and  kindred 9  1.2 

Nonacademic  teaching  (trade  school,  technical,  avo- 

cational,  et  cetera)  4  .5 

Other    3  .4 

4.  Army  and  Navy  officers  15  2.0 

5.  Officials  in  administration  (public  or  private) 

Includes  government  officials 12  1.6 

III.  Retail  business  (small),  clerical  and  sales,  skilled  crafts, 

protective  services  (supervisory  ranks)  and  kindred 

1.  Clerical  and  sales 29  3.8 

2.  Skilled  crafts  (craftsmen  and  foremen) 29  3.8 

3.  Retail  business  (small)  owners  and  managers. 10  1.3 

4.  Technicians  (laboratory  assistants,  dental  technicians, 

etcetera 5  .7 

5.   Protective  service  occupations* 10  1.3 

IV.  Agriculture  and  related  occupations 

1.  Farm  owners  and  operators 11  1.5 

2.  Nurseryman   1  .1 

V.   Minor  business  and  semiskilled  occupations 

1.  Clerical  and  business 7  .9 

2.  Semiskilled  trades 2  .3 

Total 757 

*  Includes  1  Inspector  and  1  Captain  of  Police;  3  Police  Sergeants;  1  Sheriff;  2  Battalion 
CMefs  (fire  department) ;  1  CMef  Warrant  Officer,  U.S.  Army;  and  1  Master  Sergeant,  U.S. 
Army. 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  77 

The  following  case  notes  will  illustrate  some  of  the  occupations  that 
are  classified  in  the  various  groups.  The  descriptions  do  not  cover  all 
occupations  represented  in  these  groups  but  we  have  attempted  to  show 
something  of  the  variety  in  both  the  nature  and  the  level  of  occupation. 

Group  I 

(1)  A  director  of  engine  research  for  one  of  the  largest  companies 
manufacturing  heavy  equipment.    His  story  is  especially  interesting  be- 
cause he  arrived  at  his  present  high-level  engineering  job  without  the  usual 
training.  He  graduated  from  high  school  with  honors  at  age  17  and  imme- 
diately went  to  work  as  an  office  boy  for  the  firm  with  which  he  is  still  asso- 
ciated.  He  was  made  an  apprentice  mechanic  within  a  few  months  and 
thereafter  rose  rapidly  through  the  various  engineering  levels  to  his  present 
post. 

(2)  A  newspaper  reporter  and  columnist  who  has  also  written  a  num- 
ber of  books  on  sports  for  children, 

(3)  A  physician  and  specialist  in  cancer  research  who  heads  the  depart- 
ment of  internal  medicine  in  a  leading  university. 

(4)  A  pastor  of  a  church  in  a  medium-sized  city  who  has  taken  a  doc- 
torate in  theology.  He  is  engaged  in  pastoral  work  and  heads  the  district 
council  of  churches. 

(5)  A  man  with  a  B.S.  in  physics  who  is  employed  as  a  physicist  in  the 
research  and  development  division  of  a  large  oil  company. 

(6)  A  university  professor  of  astronomy  engaged  in  teaching  and  re- 
search. Under  various  grants,  including  a  Guggenheim  Fellowship,  he  has 
carried  out  research  projects  in  Africa  as  well  as  at  several  observatories 
in  this  country  and  has  published  a  number  of  research  papers. 

(7)  Two  writers  of  interest  because  of  different  backgrounds  and 
parallel  careers*  One  trained  in  engineering  (B.S.  and  M.S.)  is  one  of  the 
country's  leading  science  fiction  and  fantasy  writers  who  has  produced  some 
60  short  stories  and  novelettes  as  well  as  15  volumes  of  fiction  and  non- 
fiction.  He  is  also  the  author  of  a  number  of  magazine  articles,  critiques 
and  book  reviews  dealing  chiefly  with  science  or  science  fiction. 

The  other,  with  a  background  in  the  liberal  arts  (A.B.  and  M.A.),  is 
both  prolific  and  versatile.  By  age  40  he  had  produced  7  mystery  novels, 
25  or  more  short  stories,  and  10  or  12  articles.  A  reviewer  of  note,  he  writes 
a  regular  column  of  book  reviews  for  a  nationally  circulated  metropolitan 
newspaper.  He  has  won  the  Edgar  Allen  Poe  award  four  times  for  the  best 
mystery  story  reviewing  in  the  United  States.  He  is  the  editor  of  three 
magazines  of  mystery  or  science  fiction  and  has  also  published  five  an- 
thologies of  mystery  stories.  In  addition,  he  has  taught  a  class  in  creative 
writing  for  the  past  seven  years. 

(8)  A  former  high-school  teacher  who  is  now  supervisor  of  measure- 
ment and  evaluation  in  a  large  city  school  department. 


78  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

(9)  A  member  of  the  editorial  staff  of  a  leading  journal  who  was  for- 
merly a  professor  of  fine  arts  and  more  recently  associate  director  of  an 
Institute  of  Fine  Arts. 

Group  II 

(1)  A  man  who  took  a  Ph.D.  in  physics  with  high  scholastic  honors 
and  then  found  himself  more  interested  in  economic  theory  and  political 
science.  After  several  years  experience  in  statistical  economics  with  private 
firms,  he  was  in  government  service  during  World  War  II  in  charge  of 
industrial  control  programs.  After  the  war  he  joined  a  world-wide  ship- 
ping company  where  he  has  now  become  controller  and  vice-president. 

(2)  A  motion  picture  director  who  has  made  some  of  the  most  outstand- 
ing pictures  of  the  past  ten  years.  His  pictures  made  in  England  and  on 
the  Continent  as  well  as  those  made  in  the  United  States  have  won  him  an 
international  reputation.  He  has  received  a  number  of  citations  and  awards 
including  a  special  award  at  the  International  Film  Festival.  Other  honors 
include  several  "Oscar"  awards  from  the  Academy  of  Motion  Picture  Arts 
and  Sciences  won  either  by  his  pictures  or  by  actors  under  his  direction. 

(3)  A  graduate  in  chemistry  (B.S.)  who  joined  the  sales  division  of 
a  large  chemical  company.   After  several  years  in  the  field  of  technical 
sales  work,  he  received  a  year  of  additional  training  in  economics  from 
the  company  and  is  now  in  charge  of  a  sales  division. 

(4)  A  graduate  in  engineering  (A.B.  and  M.E.)  who  went  into  the  con- 
struction business.  He  has  been  highly  successful  in  the  field  of  residential 
property  development. 

(5)  A  former  high-school  teacher  of  mathematics  and  science  who  is 
now  a  land  surveyor. 

(6)  A  city  manager  of  a  small  California  city.  This  man  majored  in 
political  science  and  did  graduate  work  in  personnel  administration.   He 
formerly  worked  in  the  field  of  merchandising. 

(7)  A  public  relations  official  with  one  of  the  branches  of  the  state 
government  who  is  a  writer  by  avocation  and  whose  first  novel  was  a  recent 
Book-of-the-Month  selection. 

(8)  The  director  of  the  textbook  division  for  a  large  publishing  firm. 

(9)  The  chief  of  police  of  a  small  city.  He  has  developed  a  co-ordinated 
communications  system,  which  is  considered  a  model.  A  special  interest  in 
the  prevention  of  juvenile  delinquency  has  brought  him  frequent  invitations 
to  lecture  on  this  and  other  aspects  of  his  work. 

Group  III 

(1)  A  university  graduate  and  former  botanist  who  operates  a  small, 
independent  pest-control  business. 

(2)  An  art-school  graduate  who  paints  m  both  water  colors  and  oils 
and  whose  work  has  received  considerable  praise  in  exhibits,  is  employed 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  79 

as  a  house  painter  and  decorator  while  hoping  some  day  to  win  recognition 
as  an  artist 

(3)  A  man  with  a  B.S.  in  chemistry  who  is  a  photographic  technician. 

(4)  A  high -school  graduate  who  is  a  supervising  clerk  in  a  public  utili- 
ties office. 

(5)  A  high-school  graduate  who  is  a  pattern-maker  and  instructor  of 
apprentices. 

(6)  A  high-school  graduate  who  is  a  battalion  chief  in  a  large  city  fire 
department 

(7)  A  noncommissioned  officer  in  military  service  who  is  also  a  short 
story  writer  specializing  in  science  fiction.  Eight  of  his  stories  have  been 
published  to  date. 

Group  IV 

The  12  men  in  this  category  with  the  exception  of  one  employed  as  a 
nurseryman  are  all  owners  or  operators  of  farms  or  randies.  Six  are 
orchardists,  three  are  cattle  ranchers,  one  is  a  poultry  farmer,  and  one  a 
rice-  and  grain-grower.  Eight  of  these  men  are  college  graduates,  two 
attended  college  for  two  years,  and  two  are  high-school  graduates. 

Group  V 

(1)  A  university  graduate  who  also  had  two  years  of  graduate  work, 
who  is  now  a  mail  carrier.  Because  of  poor  health  this  man  is  not  able  to 
work  at  his  profession. 

(2)  Two  high-school  graduates,  both  of  whom  are  bartenders  and  man- 
agers. 

(3)  Two  men  with  college  educations  who  are  in  minor  clerical  work. 
In  both  cases  lack  of  stability  and  excessive  drinking  have  prevented  greater 
vocational  achievement. 

(4)  Two  men  who  did  not  complete  high  school,  one  of  whom  is  a  truck 
driver  and  one  a  warehouseman. 

(5)  A  high-school  graduate  who  operates  a  small  sandwich  shop. 

(6)  The  ninth  man  in  Group  V  is  described  on  page  82. 

COMPARISON  WITH  OCCUPATIONS  OF  MEN  COLLEGE 
GRADUATES  IN  GENERAL 

There  is  no  question  but  that  the  gifted  men  have  many  times  the 
representation  in  the  professional  and  higher  business  occupations  than 
would  be  found  for  a  random  group  of  men  of  like  age.  That  this  group 
also  surpasses  in  occupational  status  unselected  college  graduates  is 
shown  by  a  comparison  with  the  data  furnished  by  Havemann  and 


80  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

West.17  The  authors  have  grouped  "professionals  of  all  types"  into  a 
single  category,  which  presumably  includes  semiprofessionals  and  busi- 
ness professionals  as  well  as  the  more  strictly  defined  professions  of  the 
Minnesota  Scale.  Since  this  is  too  broad  a  grouping  to  be  comparable 
to  the  Group  I  in  which  professional  gifted  men  are  classified,  we  have 
combined  the  two  Havemann  and  West  categories,  "professionals  of 
all  types"  and  "proprietors,  managers,  and  executives,"  for  comparison 
with  the  combined  Groups  I  and  II  of  the  gifted  men  as  classified  on 
the  Minnesota  Scale.  Table  26  gives  the  percentage  distribution  of  occu- 
pations for  three  groups  of  men:  the  U.S.  college  graduates  in  general, 
the  gifted  college  graduates  and,  in  addition,  all  gifted  men  regardless 
of  education. 

TABLE  26 

COMPARISON  OF  OCCUPATIONS  OF  GIFTED  MEN 
AND  U.S.  COLLEGE  GRADUATES 

All  U.S.        Gifted  All 

College        College  Gifted 

Graduates   Graduates          Men 

Occupational  Classification  %  %  % 

A.  Professionals  of  all  types ;  proprietors, 

managers,  executives 84  93.7  86.3 

B.  Clerical,  sales,  and  kindred  workers 10  4.3  10.9 

C.  Skilled,  semiskilled,  and  unskilled  workers  5  0.5  1.2 

D.  Farmers  and  farm  workers 1  1.5  1.6 

A  comparison  of  the  figures  in  Table  26  shows  the  superiority  in 
job  status  of  the  gifted  graduate  to  college  men  in  general.  This  is  evi- 
dent in  the  higher  proportion  of  the  gifted  in  the  important  and  high- 
level  occupations  (94%  of  gifted  versus  84%  of  all  college  men)  and  in 
the  very  much  smaller  proportion  of  gifted  graduates  among  both  the 
clerical  and  sales  workers  and  the  skilled,  semiskilled,  and  unskilled 
group.  Not  only  do  the  college  graduates  among  the  gifted  surpass  the 
generality  of  college  graduates  in  occupational  status,  but  the  total  group 
of  gifted  men,  including  the  30  percent  who  did  not  graduate  from  col- 
lege, also  compare  favorably  with  Havemann  and  West's  college  gradu- 
ate population.  As  shown  in  the  third  column  of  Table  26,  the  gifted 
men,  regardless  of  education,  have  a  slightly  larger  representation  in  the 
higher  occupations  of  category  A  and  a  markedly  smaller  proportion  of 
workers  at  the  "skilled,  semiskilled,  and  unskilled"  level  of  category  C 
where  5  percent  of  unselected  college  graduates  fall  as  compared  with 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  81 

one-half  of  one  percent  of  gifted  college  men  and  1 . 2  percent  of  all 
gifted  men.  The  proportion  in  farm  occupations  shows  little  difference 
in  the  three  groups  of  men. 

OCCUPATIONAL  CHANGES  AMONG  GIFTED  MEN 
BETWEEN  1940  AND  1955 

A  comparison  of  the  occupational  status  of  the  gifted  men  at  differ- 
ent stages  illustrates  their  upward  progress.  The  fact  that  the  Min- 
nesota Occupational  Scale  was  used  in  classifying  the  occupations  of 
1940, 1950,  and  1955  makes  it  possible  to  compare  the  status  of  the  men 
at  these  three  dates.*  These  comparisons  are  given  in  Table  27. 

TABLE  27 

COMPARISON  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  CLASSIFICATIONS 
OF  1940, 1950,  AND  1955  (MEN) 

Percent  of  Employed  Menf 


1940  1950  1955 

Occupational  Group  (N  =  724)    (N  =  762)   (N  =  757) 

I.   Professional 45.4  45.6  45.6 

II.   Managerial,  official  and  semiprofesslonal      25.7  39.4  40.7 

III.  Retail  business,   clerical,   skilled  crafts 

and  kindred 2Q.7  12.0  10.9 

IV.  Agriculture  and  related  occupations  ....        1.2  1.8  1.6 
V.   Semiskilled  occupations 6.2             1.2  1 .2 

VI.   Slightly  skilled  trades 0.7 

t  The  slight  variations  in  the  number  employed  at  each  period  are  caused,  in  part,  by  the 
student  status  of  some  subjects  at  the  earlier  dates;  In  part,  by  deaths  during  the  15 -year  span; 
and  in  a  very  few  instances  by  incapacitation  due  to  poor  health,  at  one  time  or  another. 

Omitting  Group  IV  (farming  and  related  occupations),  the  rank 
order  of  Groups  I,  II,  III,  and  V  in  Table  27  remains  unchanged 
throughout  the  15-year  period.  There  are,  however,  marked  changes 
in  the  proportionate  representation  in  all  groups  except  the  professions 
with  most  of  the  change  taking  place  between  1940  and  1950.  Although 
the  proportion  in  Group  I  is  about  45  percent  at  all  three  dates,  there 
have  been  some  shifts  into  and  out  of  the  professions,  which  are  not 
apparent  in  the  percentages.  The  majority  of  those  who  were  graduate 
students  in  1940  subsequently  entered  the  professions,  and  a  few  men 
formerly  in  other  occupational  classifications  took  additional  training 
following  World  War  II  to  qualify  for  one  of  the  professions.  On  the 

*  The  classification  made  of  the  1944  occupations  as  given  in  the  1945  Informa- 
tion Blank  is  omitted  from  these  comparisons  because  of  the  occupational  dislocations 
caused  by  the  war. 


82  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

other  hand,  about  an  equal  number  of  men  who  were  in  Group  I  in  1940 
have  left  the  active  practice  of  their  profession.  All  but  a  few  of  these 
men  have  become  staff  or  operational  executives  in  business  or  industry. 
They  are  classified  according  to  the  current  occupation,  chiefly  Group 
II,  although  their  work  may  be  related  to  the  former  profession  and 
require  an  application  of  their  professional  training.  There  are,  how- 
ever, five  men  who  were  in  professional  work  in  1940  who  are  cur- 
rently in  Group  III.  These  include  an  artist  and  writer  who  has  turned 
to  carpentry  to  earn  a  livelihood ;  two  school  teachers,  one  of  whom, 
because  of  special  skill  with  tools,  became  a  machinist,  and  one  who  is 
manager  of  a  small  business;  an  engineer  who  operates  a  small  radio 
and  television  repair  service ;  and  a  lawyer  who,  for  health  reasons,  is 
doing  clerical  work. 

In  the  15-year  interval  from  1940  to  1955,  the  Group  II  representa- 
tion increased  from  26  percent  to  41  percent ;  Group  III  dropped  from 
21  percent  to  11  percent;  Group  V  decreased  from  about  6  percent  to 
approximately  1  percent,  and  Group  VI  disappeared  entirely.  Only 
nine  men  are  currently  in  Group  V  and  the  number  in  this  category  is 
not  likely  to  be  reduced  greatly  since,  in  all  probability,  there  will 
always  be  a  few  individuals  who,  for  personal  reasons,  choose  more 
simple  and  routine  work.  In  spite  of  the  marked  increase  in  Group  II 
between  1940  and  1955,  four  men  formerly  in  Group  II  have  moved  to 
a  lower  classification.  Three  of  these  are  now  in  Group  III,  all  in 
smaller  retail  business  enterprises.  The  fourth  man  shifted  to  Group  V 
and  his  story  is  especially  interesting. 

A  university  graduate,  D.  H.  for  some  15  years  worked  for  a  large 
corporation  in  which  he  rose  to  a  managerial  position.  His  growing 
interest  in  the  labor  movement  and  in  bettering  the  social  order  made 
the  atmosphere  of  "big  business"  in  which  he  worked  increasingly  un- 
congenial. Finally,  after  World  War  II  he  left  his  position  to  go  to 
work  as  a  laborer  and  has  continued  in  this  work  for  the  past  10  years. 
He  is  very  much  interested  in  history,  economics,  and  politics  espe- 
cially as  applied  to  the  labor  union  and  the  working  man,  and  reads 
extensively  in  these  areas.  D»  H.  takes  an  active  part  in  union  affairs 
and  appears  to  have  found  great  personal  satisfaction  in  what  he  is  doing. 
His  score  on  the  Terman  Group  Test  at  age  15  was  equivalent  to  an 
IQ  of  approximately  150  and  this  high  intellectual  level  has  been  main- 
tained. On  the  Concept  Mastery  tests  taken  in  1940  and  1952  he  scored 
at  both  dates  well  above  the  average  of  the  gifted  men. 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  83 

It  is  interesting  to  see  what  happened  to  the  men  who  in  1940  were 
classified  in  Groups  III,  V,  and  VI  and  this  information  is  given  in 
Table  28.  Of  the  total  200  men  in  these  three  occupational  groups  in 
1940,  10  had  died  by  1955,  and  information  on  1955  occupation  was 
not  obtained  for  4  men.  There  were  no  drops  in  the  occupational  level, 
among  the  remainder  of  the  men  in  the  15-year  period ;  instead,  for  all 
but  a  minority  there  was  marked  improvement.  Almost  four-fifths  of 
the  men  classified  in  either  Groups  III,  V,  or  VI  in  1940  moved  upward 
and  one-fifth  remained  in  the  same  classification  between  1940  and 
1955.  About  two-thirds  of  those  in  Group  III  at  the  earlier  date  had 
advanced  to  the  higher  business  and  professional  occupations  (Groups 
I  and  II)  and  one-third  of  the  1940  Group  V  men  were  classified  in 
Groups  I  and  II  in  1955. 

TABLE  28 

1955  OCCUPATIONAL  STATUS  OF  MEN  WHO  WERE  CLASSIFIED 
IN  GROUPS  III,  V,  AND  VI  IN  1940 

1940  Occupational  Classification 

1955  Occupational  Status  Group  III       Group  V       Group  VI 

N  N  N 

Group  I   14  5 

Group  II 84  10  1 

Group  III    37  26  2 

Group  V    1  2 

Not  employed;  independent  means.  1 

Incapacitated  by  reasons  of  health 3 

Information  on  status  lacking 4 

Deceased 7  3 

Total  in  group  as  of  1940 150  45  5 

It  is  not  surprising,  of  course,  that  the  gifted  men  who  have  had  the 
advantage  of  college  training,  often  at  the  graduate  level,  should  be  in 
positions  of  importance  and  prestige  in  the  professions  and  the  business 
world.  It  is,  however,  of  special  interest  when  those  without  such  edu- 
cational advantages  rise  to  positions  of  importance  in  competition  with 
college-trained  men.  One  such  example  follows. 

C.  J.,  whose  formal  schooling  was  limited  to  high  school  and  6  units 
of  college  mathematics  taken  in  extension  courses,  moved  from  Group 
III  to  Group  I  between  1940  and  1955.  He  was  one  of  a  family  of  two 
children  (brother  and  sister),  both  of  whom  were  selected  for  the  gifted 
study.  For  various  reasons  the  boy,  although  he  had  had  a  strong  in- 


84  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

terest  in  science  and  engineering  since  childhood,  did  not  go  to  college. 
The  fact  that  he  completed  high  school  at  a  time  of  economic  stress  (the 
early  1930's)  may  have  been  one  determining  factor  behind  his  failure 
to  enter  college.  His  parents,  although  they  had  hoped  he  would  con- 
tinue his  education,  were  not  able  to  help  him  financially.  More  impor- 
tant, however,  were  his  poor  school  grades,  which  made  it  necessary 
that  he  take  "make-up"  courses  to  qualify  for  college,  and  at  that  time 
he  could  see  no  reason  for  spending  time  on  subjects  in  which  he  was 
not  interested.  Probably  the  most  crucial  factor  in  his  dropping  out 
of  school  was  the  failure  of  the  school  itself  to  recognize  his  unusual 
ability  or  to  offer  any  real  guidance  during  his  high-school  years.  His 
reluctance  to  conform  to  a  school  routine  and  his  lack  of  application  to 
his  studies — even  though,  according  to  the  report  from  the  high  school, 
he  showed  "occasional  flashes  of  brilliance" — apparently  obscured  his 
great  gifts.  Left  entirely  on  his  own  with  little  sympathetic  stimula- 
tion and  no  guidance,  he  went  to  work  on  leaving  high  school,  with  the 
Intention  of  saving  money  for  college  study  and  a  degree  in  engineering. 
It  was  an  unfavorable  time  for  financial  progress,  but  C.  J.  remained 
employed  all  through  the  depression.  He  began  at  a  fairly  unskilled 
level  but  after  a  few  years  found  work  in  the  field  of  machine  design 
where  he  made  excellent  progress.  During  this  period  he  studied  in- 
formally and  still  clung  to  his  ambition  of  taking  an  engineering  degree 
and — as  he  came  to  hope — a  graduate  degree  in  physics.  When  his 
income  became  sufficiently  secure  that  he  might  have  gone  to  college, 
war  threatened  and  he  turned  instead  to  war  work.  During  World 
War  II  he  was  on  the  research  staff  of  a  highly  secret  and  important 
laboratory,  working  side  by  side  with  graduate  physicists,  often  on  his 
own  projects,  an  honor  usually  accorded  only  Ph.D/s.  When  this  re- 
search laboratory  was  discontinued  at  the  end  of  the  war,  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  engineering  staff  at  a  military  ordnance  laboratory. 
Because  of  his  fine  work  as  a  project  engineer  on  important  military 
developments,  he  received  a  promotional  appointment  to  the  GS-12 
level  under  a  "meritorious  exception."  This  was  a  distinct  honor  since, 
under  Civil  Service  regulations,  an  individual  without  a  college  degree 
is  ineligible  for  advancement  beyond  the  grade  of  GS-7. 

However,  greater  honors  were  in  store  for  C.  J.  He  was  recently 
fully  qualified  as  a  mechanical  engineer,  GS-12,  thus  removing  the 
"meritorious  exception"  qualification.  This  action  made  further  pro- 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  85 

motion  possible  and  he  now  heads  a  branch  of  the  optical  engineering 
division  in  a  military  research  and  development  center.  His  work,  on 
a  high  professional  level,  is  concerned  with  guided  missile  instrumenta- 
tion. 

C.  J.  is  now  in  his  early  forties,  married,  and  the  father  of  three 
children.  He  is  active  in  school  and  community  affairs  and  his  hobbies 
include  music,  photography,  and  reading.  Among  the  magazines  read 
regularly  are  the  Atlantic  Monthly  and  Scientific  American,  and  books 
he  has  recently  read  include  Modern  Arms  and  Free  Men  ( Vannevar 
Bush),  Language  in  Action  (Hayakawa),  and  Human  Destiny  (Le- 
comte  du  Noiiy).  His  Binet  IQ  at  age  10  was  154  and  his  Terman 
Group  Test  score  in  1928  at  age  17  was  within  a  few  points  of  a  per- 
fect score.  And  it  was  then  that  the  school  complained  of  his  argu- 
mentativeness  and  failure  to  respond  to  discipline,  and  noted  his  fail- 
ure in  various  school  subjects,  despite  the  A  he  received  in  chemistry! 
On  the  Concept  Mastery  tests  taken  in  1940  and  1951  he  scored  far 
higher  than  the  average  college  graduate  and  placed  nearly  20  points 
above  the  average  of  the  gifted  men.  In  view  of  his  continued  high  in- 
telligence rating  and  his  remarkable  scientific  ability — especially  in 
physics  and  engineering — one  wonders  how  much  farther  he  might 
have  gone  and  how  much  greater  might  have  been  his  contribution  to 
knowledge  had  his  talents  been  recognized  early  and  adequate  guidance 
and  motivation  been  provided. 

OCCUPATIONAL  STATUS  OF  WOMEN 

According  to  the  1955  reports,  one-half  of  the  gifted  women  were 
housewives  with  no  outside  employment,  42  percent  held  full-time  jobs, 
and  about  8  percent  were  working  part-time.  The  occupational  picture 
changes,  however,  when  viewed  according  to  marital  status.  Only  29 
percent  of  the  married  women  were  working  wives  on  a  full-time  basis 
and  10  percent  had  part-time  employment.  The  three  single  women 
not  holding  regular  jobs  are  financially  independent  and  engage  in  vol- 
unteer welfare  work  and  various  creative  activities,  such  as  painting, 
dress  design,  and  writing.  One  of  the  women  in  this  category  has  pub- 
lished several  books  for  children;  another,  for  several  years  was  a 
designer  for  an  exclusive  dress  shop.  Four-fifths  of  the  divorced  and 
widowed  were  employed  full-time  and  1  percent  part-time.  Table  29 
gives  the  occupational  status  according  to  marital  status. 


86  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  29 

OCCUPATIONAL  STATUS  OF  WOMEN  ACCORDING  TO 
MARITAL  STATUS  (1955) 

Marital  Status 


Single  Married          Widowed  or  Total 

divorced 

N         %  N         %  N         %  N         % 

Housewife,  not  employed 290  61.2  13  18.1  303  49.7 

Employed  full-time 59  92.2  138  29.1  56  77.8  253  41.5 

Employed  part-time 46  9.7  1  1.4  47  7.7 

Independent  means,  not 

employed  3  4.7  3  .5 

Incapacitated  by  health 

reasons  2     3.1  ..  ..  2  2.7  4  .6 

N 64  474  72  610 

Status  not  ascertained  (includes  17  women  lost  since  1928  or  earlier) . .     19 
Total 629 

Occupational  status  is  associated  to  some  extent  with  the  amount 
of  education  as  shown  in  Table  30.  The  women  who  have  taken  ad- 
vanced degrees  are  much  more  likely  to  be  employed  than  are  those 
with  only  a  bachelor's  degree  or  those  who  had  from  one  to  four  years 
of  college  work.  All  but  two  of  the  25  women  with  a  Ph.D.,  M.D.,  or 
LL.B.  were  following  careers  either  on  college  faculties  or  in  profes- 
sional practice.  One  woman  with  an  M.D.  and  one  with  an  LL.B,,  both 
of  whom  previously  engaged  in  professional  practice,  are  now  house- 
wives. For  the  total  college  graduate  group  the  proportion  employed 
is  43  percent  as  compared  with  37  percent  of  the  nongradiiates.  It  might 
be  noted  here  that  although  only  29  percent  of  the  currently  married 
women  are  employed,  79  percent  of  them  are  college  graduates. 

TABLE  30 
OCCUPATIONAL  STATUS  OF  WOMEN  ACCORDING  TO  EDUCATION 

Percentages  in  Educational  Categories 


Graduate  study 

Gradtt-    1  or  more  years, 

Bachelor's 

1  to  4  years 

No 

a 
( 

.te  degree      no  degree 
N  =  137)     (N=104) 

degree 
<N  =  175) 

of  college 
(N  =  100) 

college 
(N  =  94) 

Housewife,  not  employed 

36.5          40.4 

61.7 

57.0 

48.9 

Employed  full-time  . 

59.1          43.3 

30.8 

32.0 

43.6 

Employed  part-time  

4.4          15.4 

6.3 

7.0 

7.5 

Single,  not  employed.  .  .  * 

0.9 

0.6 

1.0 

Incapacitated  

0.6 

3.0 

THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  87 

The  employed  women  represent  a  wide  range  of  occupations  that 
do  not  fit  into  a  formal  classification  such  as  the  Minnesota  Occupa- 
tional Scale  used  for  the  gifted  men.  Their  occupations  have  been 
grouped  instead  into  three  broad  categories :  (1)  professional  and  semi- 
professional ;  (II)  business  occupations;  and  (III)  a  small  group  of 
miscellaneous  occupations  not  covered  in  either  Group  I  or  Group  II. 
Table  31  lists  the  1955  occupations  and  gives  the  percentage  of  employed 
women  in  each.  The  17  women  on  college  faculties  include,  in  addi- 
tion to  1 1  who  are  in  the  fields  of  the  humanities  and  social  sciences,  four 
biologists,  one  zoologist,  and  one  biochemist.  Five  are  full  professors 
and  3  of  these  five  also  hold  administrative  positions :  one  as  Dean  of  the 
Faculty  and  Provost,  one  as  Dean  of  Women,  and  one  as  chairman  of 
her  department.  Another  5  women  hold  associate  professor  rank  and 
4  are  assistant  professors;  the  remaining  3  faculty  members  are  re- 
search scientists,  all  in  the  biological  sciences.  Grouped  together  as  the 
"higher  professions"  are  those  vocations  which  require  specialized 
training  and  graduate  degrees.  These  include  six  physicians,  three 
clinical  psychologists,  two  lawyers,  and  a  research  metallurgist.  The 
category  "other  professions"  in  Group  I  includes  two  pharmacists,  two 
laboratory  technicians,  a  missionary,  an  aerodynamist,  and  a  court  re- 
porter. Group  III  is  composed  of  occupations  that  do  not  fit  into  either 
of  the  other  groups.  These  include  telephone  operator,  sales  clerk,  and 
industrial  worker. 

Schoolteaching,  including  elementary  and  secondary  administrative 
and  supervisory  positions,  is  the  most  frequent  occupation,  accounting 
for  almost  one-fourth  of  the  employed  women.  In  second  place  are  the 
secretaries,  stenographers,  and  similar  office  workers  with  about  one- 
fifth  of  the  total.  The  women  on  college  faculties  or  in  the  higher  pro- 
fessions rank  third  with  11  percent.  The  remainder  are  distributed 
over  a  number  of  occupation,  all  with  less  than  10  percent  representa- 
tion. 

TABLE  31 
OCCUPATIONS  OF  WOMEN  WITH  FULL-TIME  EMPLOYMENT 

I.   Professional  N            % 

Members  of  college  or  university  faculties 17           6.7 

Higher  professions   12           4.7 

Administrators  and  supervisors,  elementary  or  high  school  7           2.8 

School  teachers  or  counselers 53  20.9 

Social  workers 20           7.9 


THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


TABLE  31— (Continued) 

Authors  or  journalists 17  6.7 

Librarians   14  5.5 

Arts  and  music 7  2.8 

Nurses    6  2.4 

Economists,  statisticians,  and  kindred 5  2.0 

Other  professions 7  2.8 

II.  Business 

Secretary,  stenographer,  bookkeeper,  or  other  office 

workers    50  19.8 

Executive  and  managerial 20  7.9 

Public  relations,  advertising,  promotion 6  2.4 

Real  estate  and  investments 5  2.0 

III.  Miscellaneous  7  2.8 

Total  employed 253 

Although  fewer  than  one-half  of  the  women  were  engaged  in  careers 
outside  the  home  in  1955,  and  the  jobs  they  chose  have  often  been  of  a 
less  demanding  type  in  order  not  to  interfere  too  greatly  with  home- 
making,  there  have  nevertheless  been  some  remarkable  vocational  ac- 
complishments. A  few  examples  of  outstanding  careers  follow. 

Several  scientists  have  made  important  contributions  to  research  to 
the  extent  that  7  women  are  listed  in  American  Men  of  Science.5  Five 
of  these  are  in  the  field  of  the  biological  sciences  and  two  in  the  social 
sciences.  Among  the  distinguished  biological  scientists  is  one  who 
played  an  important  part  in  the  development  of  the  vaccine  for  polio- 
myelitis and  who  is  continuing  to  work  in  virus  research.  The  social 
and  behavioral  sciences  include  several  women  who  are  outstanding  in 
the  fields  of  psychology,  education,  and  social  welfare.  Two  of  the 
women  psychologists  are  among  those  listed  in  American  Men  of 
Science. 

Only  one  woman  is  working  as  a  high-level  physical  scientist.  Her 
undergraduate  major  was  engineering  and  her  graduate  work  was 
taken  in  a  related  physical  science.  Since  taking  her  Doctor  of  Science 
degree,  she  has  worked  in  private  industry  where  she  has  successfully 
competed  with  men  for  advancement  and  is  now  one  of  the  most  highly 
paid  women  in  our  group.  In  addition  to  research  and  the  publication  of 
many  technical  papers,  she  has  taken  out  three  patents.  This  woman 
is  also  a  gifted  linguist  and  has  translated  several  of  her  own  more  im- 
portant works  into  French  and  German. 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER.  89 

But  not  all  the  conspicuous  achievements  have  been  in  the  sci- 
ences. Several  outstanding  records  have  been  made  in  the  humanities 
and  arts  as  well  as  in  the  business  world.  One  of  our  most  distinguished 
women  is  a  gifted  poet  whose  work  has  received  wide  recognition  and 
who  is  rated  among  the  outstanding  poets  of  our  day.  Her  writing  has 
appeared  in  a  number  of  literary  magazines  as  well  as  in  several  antholo- 
gies. She  has  published  four  volumes  of  poetry  and  various  essays, 
critiques,  and  monographs  in  the  field  of  literature  and  philosophy. 
Others  among  the  women  writers  are  a  feature  article  writer  who  con- 
tributes to  leading  magazines,  two  novelists,  a  member  of  the  editorial 
staff  and  an  executive  editor  of  a  nationally  circulated  magazine,  and 
still  another  is  the  editor  of  a  small  literary  magazine.  Other  writers 
include  the  author  of  a  successful  Broadway  play  (also  produced  as  a 
motion  picture),  several  journalists  including  a  reporter  and  feature 
writer  for  a  metropolitan  daily  paper,  and  several  technical  writers. 
One  of  our  women  is  a  gifted  painter  whose  work  has  appeared  by  invi- 
tation in  many  exhibits  and  who  has  won  considerable  recognition. 
Several  women  have  been  phenomenally  successful  in  business ;  two  of 
these  are  in  the  real  estate  business,  another  is  an  executive  buyer  In 
a  large  department  store,  and  still  another,  herself  a  pharmacist,  is  the 
owner  and  operator  of  a  prosperous  pharmacy. 

One  of  the  most  interesting,  versatile,  and  successful  of  the  women 
has  had  three  careers  in  addition  to  that  of  housewife  and  mother.  This 
subject,  F.  B.,  was  first  tested  for  the  gifted  group  at  the  age  of  7  years 
10  months  and  was  found  to  have  an  IQ  of  188.  At  that  early  age  she 
was  already  showing  remarkable  literary  ability.  She  had  begun  mak- 
ing up  stories  and  rhymes  at  the  age  of  three  but  few  of  these  early 
compositions  were  preserved.  At  six  years  she  was  given  a  typewriter 
and  began  recording  her  own  work.  From  the  age  of  6  to  11  she  fre- 
quently illustrated  her  stories  and  poems  by  crayon  or  water-color 
drawings.  Her  childhood  poetry  was  compared  most  favorably  by  a 
board  of  judges  with  literary  juvenilia  by  Tennyson,  Blake,  Longfellow, 
Wordsworth,  Shelley,  and  others.  Until  the  age  of  11  she  read  and 
studied  at  home  under  her  mother's  direction.  She  then  entered  the 
ninth  grade  of  a  private  girls*  school  and  completed  high  school  at  14J4 
years.  High-school  graduation  was  followed  by  entrance  at  a  coedu- 
cational university  where  she  was  graduated  three  years  later  at  the 
age  of  17.  During  her  high-school  and  college  years  her  interests  turned 
to  clay  modeling  and  painting,  both  oil  and  water  color.  However, 


90  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

writing  continued  to  be  her  main  interest  and  her  first  novel  (not  pub- 
lished) was  completed  before  her  eighteenth  birthday. 

After  college  F.  B.'s  interests  were  directed  more  and  more  to  art, 
particularly  sculpture,  although  she  did  take  time  to  write  a  short  novel, 
which  was  published  in  1938.  In  the  mid-1930's  she  went  abroad  and 
spent  several  years  studying  sculpture  with  an  outstanding  master. 
During  this  period  she  produced  several  pieces  of  sculpture  which  have 
received  high  praise.  She  was  only  27  years  old  when  the  threat  of 
World  War  II  forced  her  to  return  to  the  United  States,  where  she  con- 
tinued her  work  in  the  arts,  not  only  in  sculpture  but  also  in  design  and 
decoration.  F,  B.  was  married  during  the  war  and  accompanied  her 
husband  to  the  military  posts  at  which  he  was  stationed.  After  her  son 
was  born  and  the  family  was  again  settled,  she  became  interested  in 
real  estate  investments.  She  began  buying,  remodeling  and  redecorat- 
ing older  houses  and  then  selling  to  advantage.  She  developed  this 
interest  into  a  highly  successful  financial  venture,  which  she  continued 
for  some  years.  Lately,  she  has  given  more  time  to  her  artistic  work 
and  recently  completed,  as  a  volunteer  service,  a  mural  in  sculpture  for 
an  interracial  youth  center.  This  work  has  received  much  attention 
and  praise  not  only  for  its  artistic  merit,  but  also  for  its  originality  in 
the  use  of  novel  materials  and  techniques,  hitherto  untried. 

The  many  interests  of  this  woman — her  literary  career,  her  later 
business  career,  and  her  continuous  work  in  the  arts — have  not  inter- 
fered with  her  fourth  career  as  a  housewife.  She  has  maintained  a 
home,  directed  her  son's  development,  and  shared  in  her  husband's 
interests,  all  successfully. 

There  have  been  many  others  among  the  women  whose  achieve- 
ments, though  important,  have  not  received  the  public  recognition  of 
the  examples  given  above.  Among  these  are  two  missionaries,  both  of 
whom  have  visited  us  and  given  first-hand  accounts  of  their  work  in 
foreign  lands.  Each  determined  at  an  early  age  to  become  a  missionary 
and  planned  her  education  accordingly.  S.  B.  was  the  valedictorian  of 
her  high-school  graduating  class  and  was  also  voted  the  best  all-round 
girl  in  the  school  on  the  basis  of  the  following  characteristics :  the  most 
intellectual,  the  wittiest,  the  friendliest,  and  the  best  natured.  After 
college  graduation  she  taught  school  for  a  few  years  before  being  sent 
to  China  as  a  missionary.  Her  first  years  in  this  work  were  spent  in  a 
country  village  and  from  there  she  joined  the  staff  of  a  teachers  col- 
lege. In  all,  S.  B.  spent  10  years  in  China,  the  last  two  and  a  half  under 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  91 

the  Communist  regime.  When  eventually  the  mission  was  withdrawn 
owing  to  the  unfavorable  political  situation,  she  returned  to  the  United 
States.  After  a  year  of  graduate  work  at  the  university  she  was  ap- 
pointed to  a  teaching  position  with  the  Institute  of  International  Edu- 
cation in  Indonesia,  but  it  is  still  her  hope  to  return  some  day  to  China. 

W.  H.,  after  receiving  a  teacher's  certificate,  joined  the  Sudan  In- 
terior Mission  and  was  sent  to  Nigeria  where  she  has  worked  for  the 
past  20  years  except  for  occasional  furloughs.  After  some  years  teach- 
ing in  village  schools,  she  organized  a  teacher-training  school  for  na- 
tives. Her  most  recent  post  has  been  supervisor  of  schools  in  northern 
Nigeria.  These  are,  for  the  most  part,  one-teacher  schools  in  widely 
scattered  bush  areas.  Hers  has  been  a  life  of  tremendous  work  and  many 
hardships,  but  a  rich  and  rewarding  one.  One  of  her  first  undertakings 
was  to  learn  the  native  language  and  she  has  translated  many  religious 
works  and  written  several  books  in  this  language.  Her  writings  include 
in  addition  to  a  number  of  religious  tracts  and  devotional  booklets,  a 
translation  of  the  story  of  Dr.  Carver,  a  book  on  the  life  of  St.  Paul,  and 
a  book  on  the  history  of  the  missions. 

The  distinguished  records  and  notable  accomplishments,  however, 
have  not  been  limited  to  the  so-called  "career"  women.  We  should  not 
overlook  the  women  whose  careers  have  been  limited  to  the  role  of  wife 
and  mother  or  to  community  welfare  and  civic  betterment  on  a  volun- 
teer basis.  Among  the  former  is  H.  M.,  one  of  our  most  highly  intelli- 
gent women.  Her  childhood  IQ  of  192  was  one  of  the  highest  in  the 
entire  group  and  later  tests  also  placed  her  at  or  near  the  top  of  the 
group.  This  subject,  especially  talented  in  mathematics,  took  her  A.B. 
in  astronomy  with  honors  at  the  age  of  20  and  continued  her  studies 
for  a  master's  degree  in  the  same  field.  This  was  followed  by  marriage 
to  a  fellow  scientist  at  the  age  of  22.  She  taught  science  in  a  junior 
college  for  two  years  after  her  marriage  until  the  birth  of  her  first  set 
of  twins.  In  a  period  of  11  years  she  and  her  husband  became  the 
parents  of  eight  children,  including  three  sets  of  twins.  This  has  left 
little  time  for  any  kind  of  professional  career  or  even  community  ac- 
tivity, although  she  has  maintained  her  interest  in  science  and  reads 
widely  in  both  scientific  and  more  general  areas  of  literature.  With 
two  children  still  in  the  toddler  stage,  her  only  activity  outside  the 
home  has  been  P.T.A.  In  view  of  this  subject's  extraordinarily  high 
IQ  in  childhood,  her  Concept  Mastery  scores  are  of  especial  interest. 
Because  this  family  has  lived  in  the  east  since  1940,  it  was  not  possible 


92  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

to  give  Form  A  until  1948  and  Form  T  was  given  in  1950,  both 
during  visits  to  Stanford  University.  At  both  testings  H.  M.  made 
scores  close  to  the  highest  of  any  made  by  the  gifted  subjects,  and 
her  husband,  who  took  only  Form  A,  made  an  almost  equally  high 
score. 

A  number  of  housewives,  less  occupied  with  children  than  the 
woman  just  described,  have  found  time  to  contribute  to  community  and 
civic  activities,  many  as  leaders,  holding  various  positions  of  responsi- 
bility. Among  these  is  J.  M.  who,  by  the  age  of  37,  not  only  had  been 
elected  president  of  the  national  alumnae  association  of  her  college,  but 
also  had  been  elected  to  the  college  Board  of  Trustees. 

This  subject  was  married  at  the  age  of  23  to  another  member  of  the 
gifted  group  who  has  become  one  of  the  most  successful  lawyers  in  our 
group.  For  the  first  few  years  after  her  marriage,  J.  M.  worked  as  a 
private  secretary  but  for  the  past  ten  years  her  time  has  been  given  to 
volunteer  work  with  such  organizations  as  the  American  Cancer  So- 
ciety, the  Girl  Scouts,  and  the  Crippled  Children's  Society.  Since  she 
has  no  children,  she  has  been  able  to  give  considerable  time  to  service 
activities  as  well  as  to  such  organizations  as  the  World  Affairs  Council 
and  the  League  of  Women  Voters.  She  has  been  especially  active  in  the 
American  Cancer  Society,  holding  important  executive  office  and  board 
memberships  at  both  state  and  local  levels. 

She  has  also  published  a  book  (a  historical  biography)  and  has 
served  as  editor  of  organization  bulletins  and  as  publicity  writer  for 
the  groups  with  which  she  works. 

The  foregoing  examples  are  not  typical  of  the  gifted  women ;  few, 
if  any,  are  so  versatile  in  talent  as  F.  B. ;  no  one  else,  scientist  or  not, 
has  eight  children,  and  while  there  may  be  others  as  active  in  service 
and  community  work  as  J.  M.,  none  has  combined  this  with  such  honors 
as  election  to  a  college  Board  of  Trustees  and  the  publication  of  a  book. 
However,  most  of  the  women  in  our  group,  both  housewives  and  career 
women,  have  engaged  in  many  activities  and  have  followed  a  variety 
of  interests  outside  their  homes  and  jobs,  which  are  described  at  greater 
length  elsewhere. 

INCOME  OF  THE  GIFTED  SUBJECTS 

Although  money  is  certainly  not  the  only  or  final  criterion  of  suc- 
cess, it  cannot  be  denied  that  financial  reward  is  our  best  objective 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  93 

measure  of  progress  on  the  vocational  ladder.  The  information  sched- 
ules at  each  follow-up  investigation  since  1936  have  asked  for  a  report 
of  earned  income  of  both  the  subject  and  the  spouse,  and  in  recent  years 
the  amount  of  income  from  sources  other  than  earnings  has  also  been 
called  for.  The  income  data  were  requested  not  only  for  the  calendar 
year  immediately  preceding  the  time  of  inquiry  but  also  for  the  years 
that  had  elapsed  since  the  last  follow-up,  thus  giving  us  a  continuous 
record.  The  significance  of  any  given  income  is  determined  by  the 
economic  climate  in  which  it  is  received ,*  this  is  especially  true  during 
periods  of  mounting  inflation  such  as  have  prevailed  during  the  last 
decade.  By  current  standards  incomes  that  stood  high  in  relation  to 
the  average  a  few  years  ago  may  now  seem  mediocre  or  even  low.  For 
this  reason  our  discussion  of  income,  both  earned  and  total  family  in- 
come, will  be  limited  in  this  chapter  to  the  most  recent  figures  available ; 
that  is,  the  1954  annual  income  as  reported  in  the  1955  questionnaire. 

EARNED  INCOME  OF  MEN 

Adequate  information  on  earned  income  was  supplied  by  673  of  the 
men,  and  Table  32  gives  the  median  and  percentage  distribution  of 
earnings  both  for  the  total  group  and  for  subgroupings  according  to 
age.  Four-fifths  of  the  group  were  40  to  49  years  old  with  more  than 
half  (57% )  under  45  years  of  age  and  10  percent  under  age  40.  By  age, 
the  highest  median  income  ($10,283)  was  reported  by  the  45-  to  49- 
year-old  men,  and,  as  was  to  be  expected,  the  lowest  income  was  that  of 
the  30-  to  39-year  age  group.  For  the  total  group,  ages  combined,  the 
1954  median  earned  income  was  $9,640  and  the  income  ranged  from 
around  $4,000  to  $400,000  per  year.  As  shown  in  Table  32, 10  percent 
of  men  (all  ages)  earned  $25,000  or  more  in  1954.  The  incomes  of  the 
67  men  who  constituted  the  top  10  percent  were  distributed  cumu- 
latively as  follows  by  income  level : 

Earnings  N  %  Earnings  N  % 

$100,000  or  more          5         0.7  $50,000  or  more          13         1 .9 

$  75,000  or  more         6         0.9  $25,000  or  more         67       10.0 

One  of  the  men  in  the  $75,000  to  $100,000  bracket  whose  1954  in- 
come was  $95,000  had,  in  each  of  the  three  preceding  years,  exceeded 
$100,000 ;  in  fact,  the  six  persons  with  highest  incomes,  ranging  from 


94  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

$400,000  to  $95,000,  had  each  averaged  $100,000  or  more  per  year  for 
the  three-year  period  1952-54. 

TABLE  32 
1954  EARNED  INCOME  BY  AGE  (MEN) 

^  ,.        Percent  at  each  age  who  earn  specified  amounts 

Percent  of ~ 

Total       30-39  years*  40-44  years  45-49  years     5 0-5 4  years 
Earned  Income  (N  =  673)     (N  =  71)       (N  =  313)  (N=  228)        (N  =  61) 

$25,000  and  over 10.0  7.0  9.9  11.8  6.6 

15,000-24,999 17.5  14.1  18.8  16.2  19.7 

10,000-14,999 20.2  16.9  19.5  23.3  16.4 

9,000-9,999 6.4  4.2  8.0  4.8  6.6 

8,000-8,999 8.0  4.2  7.7  9.7  8.2 

7,000-7,999 9.7  15.5  9.6  8.8  6.6 

6,000-6,999 11.9  11.3  12.8  10.1  14.7 

5,000-5,999 7,9  14.1  6.7  7.4  8.2 

Less  than  $5,000....  8.5  12.7  7.0  7.9  13.1 

Median  earned  income  $9,640  $7,773  $9,780  $10,283  $8,900 

*  Includes  5  men  age  30-34  and  66  men  age  35-39. 

The  relationship  of  earnings  to  educational  attainment  is  shown  in 
Table  33.  The  number  of  M.D.  and  LL.B.  degrees  will  not  agree  with 
the  number  of  men  in  those  professions  in  1954  since  some  of  the  physi- 
cians are  full-time  members  of  medical-school  faculties  and  some  of  the 
lawyers  have  left  the  practice  of  law  for  other  fields.  For  the  same 
reasons,  the  median  incomes  by  degree  for  these  two  professions  will  not 
agree  with  the  median  reported  for  men  actually  practicing  these  pro- 
fessions in  1954.  In  considering  the  role  of  education  in  income  it  is 
interesting  to  find  that  those  who  did  not  go  beyond  high  school  have 
the  same  median  income  as  those  college  graduates  who  had  one  or 
more  years  of  graduate  study  beyond  the  bachelor's  but  did  not  take 
a  graduate  degree.  Furthermore,  those  men  who  had  3  to  4  years  of 
college  work  but  who  did  not  graduate,  exceeded  both  groups  just  men- 
tioned. In  fact,  only  one  of  the  six  men  ranking  highest  in  income  was 
a  college  graduate.  The  top  man  ($400,000)  did  not  attend  college  at 
all,  another  had  1  year  of  college,  and  three  had  between  2  and  3  years 
of  college  work.  But  these  are  very  exceptional  cases.  The  median 
income  for  all  college  graduates  is  37  percent  greater  than  that  of  those 
who  did  not  complete  college ;  namely,  $10,725  for  the  college  graduates 
as  compared  with  $7,812  for  the  nongraduates. 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER 


95 


TABLE  33 
1954  EARNED  INCOME  BY  AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION  (MEN) 

Percent  earning  specified  amounts 


N 

Median 

$15,000 
or  more 

$10,000- 
14,999 

$7,000- 
9,999 

$5,000- 
6,999 

Less  than 
$5,000 

PhD. 

74 

$  8,917 

21.6 

18.9 

37.8 

14.9 

6.8 

M.D  

42 

22,000 

76.2 

11.9 

9.5 

2.4 

LLB  

74 

15,250 

51.4 

24.3 

12.2 

9.5 

2.7 

MBA 

18 

11,430 

22.2 

38.9 

16.7 

16.7 

5.6 

Master's  or 

other  pro- 

fessional 

degree   

75 

8,572 

18.9 

18.9 

32.4 

17.6 

12.2 

Graduate  study 

without 

graduate 

degree   

45 

8,167 

17.8 

22.2 

24.4 

22.2 

13.3 

Bachelor's 

degree  ....  162          9,850         27.0         22.0         24.5 


20.1 


Total  college 
graduates  490 

3-4  years 
college  ....    67 

1-2  years 
college  ....    34 

High-school 
and  special 
training  ...  30 

High-school 
graduation  or 
equivalent. .     52 


6.3 


10,725  31.8  21.2  24.4  15.8  6.8 

8,333  15.1  18.2  31.8  27.3  7.6 

7,500  17.6  17.6  17.6  29.4  17.6 

6,750  6.7  16.7  23.3  33.3  20.0 

8,167  20.8  16.7  22.9  29.2  10.4 


Table  34  lists  In  rank  order  according  to  median  income  the  occu- 
pations in  which  5  or  more  men  are  engaged.  The  figures  illustrate  the 
considerable  variation  in  the  amount  to  be  earned  in  particular  occu- 
pations even  among  men  as  highly  selected  both  in  mental  ability  and 
in  education  as  our  group.  For  example,  among  the  university  faculty 
group,  which  ranks  17th  in  income  with  a  median  of  $8,167,  the  top 
man  with  earnings  of  $25,000  is  only  slightly  above  the  average  for 
the  physician  group.  The  physicians  in  professional  practice  (full-time 
medical  school  faculty  not  included)  rank  first  with  a  median  annual  net 


96  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

income*  in  1954  of  $23,500,  followed  by  executives  in  major  business 
or  industry  with  $17,680,  and  the  producers,  directors,  and  writers  in 
the  entertainment  field  are  next  with  $17,500.  Lawyers  with  $15,970 
and  architects  with  $15,000  are  in  fourth  and  fifth  places,  respectively. 
At  the  bottom  of  the  list  are  the  clergymen  with  a  median  annual 
income  of  $4,500.  Although  practicing  physicians  rank  first  in  median 
income,  the  highest  individual  incomes  are  to  be  found  in  several  other 
fields.  The  6  men  in  approximately  the  top  one  percent  of  the  total 
group  whose  1954  earnings  ranged  from  just  under  $100,000  to 
$400,000  include  two  men  who  were  in  the  field  of  land  development 
and  home  building,  including  insurance  and  financing;  a  motion  pic- 
ture director,  a  television  writer  and  producer,  a  playwright,  and  a 
business  executive  engaged  in  manufacturing  and  the  development  of 
oil  properties. 

TABLE  34 

RANK  ORDER  OF  OCCUPATIONS  ACCORDING  TO  1954 

EARNED  INCOME  (MEN) 
(Includes  only  fields  in  which  5  or  more  men  were  engaged) 

Occupation  N  Median 

1.  Physicians  (practicing)    36  $23,500 

2.  Executives  in  major  business  or  industry    73  17,680 

3.  Radio,  TV,  or  motion  picture  arts : 

producer,  director,  engineer,  writer, 

etcetera    19  17,500 

4.  Lawyers    65  15,970 

5.  Architects 8  15,000 

6.  Economists 5  13,750 

7.  Executives  in  banking,  real  estate, 

finance,  insurance 41  12,500 

8.  Owners  and  executives  in  building  and 

construction  trades 9  11,500 

9.  Chemists  and  physicists 26  10,835 

10.  Musicians  and  actors  (Le.,  performers) . .      5  10,830 

11.  Geologists  and  related 7  9,750 

12.  Personnel,  labor  relations,  vocational 

placement  officials 9  9,500 

13.  Advertising,  publicity,  public  relations. .  17  9,250 

14.  Engineers  45  9,100 

15.  Sales  managers,  technical  or  engineering 

salesmen 22  9,000 

16.  Army  or  Navy  officers 14  9,000 

17.  College  or  university  faculty 52  8,167 

*  Net  income  of  the  self-employed  includes  earnings  after  deductions  for  busi- 
ness expenses  but  before  income  taxes. 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  97 

TABLE  34~-(Contmued) 

Occupation  N  Median 

18.  Authors  or  journalists 14  8,000 

19.  Accountants,  statisticians,  and  kindred 

occupations 26  7,600 

20.  Office  managers,  purchasing  agents, 

traffic  managers,  et  cetera 10  7,500 

21.  School  teachers  or  administrators 29  6,792 

22.  Draftsmen,  surveyors,  specification 

writers,  et  cetera 7  6,250 

23.  Owners  and  managers,  retail  business. . .  11  6,125 

24.  Protective  service  occupations* 11  5,900 

25.  Agricultural  occupations 9  5,850 

26.  Skilled  trades,  craftsmen,  and  foremen. .  25  5,700 

27.  Clerical  and  retail  sales  occupations 25  5,125 

28.  Clergymen    5  4,500 

*  Members  of  police  and  fire  departments  with,  rank  of  sergeant  and  above  and  noncom- 
missioned officers  in  military  services. 

We  do  not  have  adequate  comparative  data  on  income.  What  is 
needed  is  a  breakdown  of  earned  income  of  the  male  population  in 
general  by  age,  education,  and  occupation,  for  1954.  Although  we  lack 
the  information  for  a  precise  comparison,  the  figures  available  indicate 
that  the  gifted  men  are  doing  well  financially.  The  Statistical  Abstract 
of  the  United  States**  gives  the  1954  median  income  for  occupational 
categories  grouped  according  to  the  occupation  of  the  head  of  the  spend- 
ing unit.  The  figures  are  as  follows : 

a.  Professional  and  semiprofessional .$6,020 

b.  Managerial 5,800 

c.  Self-employed    5,710 

d.  Clerical  and  sales 3,980 

e.  Skilled  and  semiskilled 4,390 

Categories  a,  b,  and  r,  although  perhaps  more  inclusive,  can  be  con- 
sidered roughly  comparable  to  the  gifted  occupational  groups  I  and  II 
where  the  median  1954  earned  income  was  $10,556.  In  contrast  to  the 
medians  of  around  $4,000  for  categories  d  and  e,  the  gifted  men  in 
corresponding  occupations  (Groups  III  and  V  of  the  Minnesota  Occu- 
pational Scale)  had  a  1954  median  earned  income  of  $5,750.  Although 
the  gifted  men  have  not  reached  the  age  of  peak  earnings  in  the  pro- 
fessional and  business  occupations,  in  the  above  comparisons  they  are 
at  an  advantage  since  their  group  does  not  include  the  younger  or  older 
workers.  It  must  be  remembered  that  these  figures  are  only  approxi- 
mations, but  the  margin  of  difference  is  wide  enough  to  permit  the  con- 


98  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

elusion  that  the  gifted  men  are  above  average  in  earnings,  compared 
with  the  generality  of  men  in  like  fields. 

EARNED  INCOME  OF  WOMEN 

Information  on  1954  earned  income  was  received  from  184  of  the 
253  fully  employed  women.  Table  35  gives  the  median  income  and  the 
percent  distribution  according  to  income  level.  The  average  income  of 
the  employed  women  was  $4,875.  Earnings  of  $10,000  or  more  were 
reported  by  6  percent  of  the  women  and  an  income  of  $5,000  or  more 
was  reported  by  almost  half  (47%)  of  the  group. 

TABLE  35 
1954  EARNED  INCOME  BY  INCOME  LEVEL  FOR  FULLY  EMPLOYED  WOMEN 

Earnings  N  % 

$10,000  or  more 11  6.0 

7,000  or  more 31  16.8 

6,000  or  more 50  27.2 

5,000  or  more 86  46.7 

4,000  or  more 134  72.8 

3,000  or  more 162  88.0 

Less  than  3,000 22  12.0 

Median  earned  income $4,875 

A  comparison  of  income  by  amount  of  education  shows  that  the 
median  for  college  graduates  is  $5,217  as  compared  with  $3,666  for 
those  with  one  to  four  years  of  college  and  $4,250  for  those  who  didn't 
go  to  college  at  all.  It  is  interesting  also  to  find  that  the  women  who  took 
only  a  bachelor's  degree  (no  graduate  work)  were  earning  slightly  less 
in  1954  than  the  high-school  graduate  group,  namely,  $4,056  as  com- 
pared with  $4,250.  Higher  degrees,  however,  are  accompanied  by 
higher  incomes  and  the  total  college  graduate  group  earns  substantially 
more  than  either  of  the  nongraduate  groups.  Annual  incomes  (1954)  of 
$6,000  or  more  were  reported  by  more  than  two-thirds  of  those  with  a 
Ph.D.,  M.D.,  or  LL.B.  and  by  about  38  percent  of  the  women  with  a 
master's  or  similar  degree,  and  by  a  third  of  all  college  graduates.  Earn- 
ings of  the  gifted  women  according  to  amount  of  education  are  given 
in  Table  36.  Education  appears  to  be  a  less  important  factor  in  earn- 
ings In  the  case  of  the  gifted  women  than  among  women  in  general. 
Havemann  and  West17  report  that  women  college  graduates  earn  more 
than  two  and  one-half  times  as  much  as  the  average  working  woman. 
In  the  case  of  the  gifted,  however,  those  women  with  a  college  degree 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  99 

earned  only  about  one-fourth  more  than  did  the  gifted  women  who  did 
not  go  beyond  high  school. 

TABLE  36 
1954  EARNED  INCOME  BY  AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION  (WOMEN) 

Med"  Proportion  Earning  Specified  Amounts 

N  Earned          $6,000  or  more      Less  than  $4,000 

Income  N  %  N  % 

PhD.,  M.D.,  LL.B.. 19         $7,500          13      68.4  0      .... 

Master's  or  professional 
degree   48  5,455  18     37.5  5      10.4 

One  or  more  years  graduate 
study  without  graduate  de- 
gree (may  include  teaching 
credential  or  similar  certifi- 


Bachelor's  degree  only.  .  .  . 

..     39 

4,056 

5      12.8 

19      48.7 

All  college  graduates 138  5,217          46     33.3  28      20.3 

1  to  4  years  college  (not 

graduated)    18  3,666  1        5.6  12      66.7 

Nocollege 28  4,250  3      10.7  12      42.9 

The  relationship  of  income  to  occupation  is  shown  in  Table  37. 
The  women  on  college  faculties  and  those  in  the  higher  professions 
(law,  medicine,  and  so  on)  averaging  $6,833  have  the  highest  income. 
For  the  15  faculty  women  in  this  group  the  median  is  $5,700.  Teachers 
(below  college)  and  school  administrators  are  in  second  place  with  a 
median  of  $5,400,  followed  by  miscellaneous  professions  with  $4,710 
and,  ranking  last,  the  business  occupations  with  a  median  of  $3,719. 
The  highest  individual  income  ($24,000)  is  that  of  a  physician.  Others 
earning  $15,000  or  more  are:  another  physician,  a  research  scientist 
(industry),  a  pharmacist  (owner),  a  lawyer,  and  a  hospital  adminis- 
trator. 

TABLE  37 

1954  EARNED  INCOME  BY  OCCUPATION  (WOMEN) 
(Includes  only  fields  in  which  15  or  more  women  were  engaged) 

N  Median 

College  faculties  and  higher  professions. .    25  $6,833 

School  teachers  or  administrators 48  5,400 

Other  professions 51  4,710 

Business  occupations 60  3,719 


100  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TOTAL  FAMILY  INCOME 

In  addition  to  data  on  the  earned  income  of  the  subjects,  the  1955 
Information  Blank  also  called  for  the  earned  income  of  the  spouse  and 
for  the  approximate  amount  of  family  income  from  sources  other  than 
earnings  (investments,  trust  funds,  et  cetera).  The  three  sources  of 
income,  i.e.,  earnings  of  subject,  earnings  of  spouse,  and  income  from 
other  sources,  were  combined  to  arrive  at  the  total  family  income.  Total 
family  income  includes  not  only  the  earnings  of  the  fully  employed  but 
also  those  of  part-time  workers.  Single  persons  are  not  included  in 
the  presentation  of  data  on  family  income. 

Table  38  gives  the  median  income  and  the  percent  distribution  by 
income  levels  of  the  1954  family  incomes.  Median  total  family  incomes 
of  $11,582  and  $9,740  were  reported  by  the  men  and  women,  respec- 
tively. For  all  families,  i.e.,  gifted  men  and  women  combined,  the 
median  was  $10,866.  Nearly  one-third  had  incomes  of  $15,000  or  more 
and  12  percent  were  in  the  $25,000-and-over  bracket. 

TABLE  38 
1954  TOTAL  FAMILY  INCOME 

Gifted  Men  Gifted  Women  All  Gifted  Subjects 
and  Spouses              and  Spouses  and  Spouses 

(N  =  644)  (N  =  454)  (N  =  1,098) 

%  %  % 

$25,000  or  more 13.1  9.6  11.7 

15,000  or  more 34.1  23.7  29.8 

10,000  or  more 61.1  48.3  55.8 

7,000  or  more 84.3  73.7  80.0 

5,000  or  more 96.0  90.2  93.6 

Less  than  5,000 4.0  9.7  6.4 

Median  family 
income $11,582  $9,740  $10,866 

Just  as  the  individual  earned  income  of  the  gifted  subjects  compares 
favorably  with  that  for  the  generality,  so  also  does  total  family  income. 
We  have  compared  the  family  incomes  of  the  gifted  subjects  with  the 
incomes  of  the  U.S.  urban  white  families  who  resemble  the  gifted  group 
more  closely  in  socio-economic  status  than  does  the  total  population. 
According  to  census  figures,40  the  median  total  money  income  in  1955 
for  the  economically  favored  urban  white  families  was  $5,069.  One 
percent  had  incomes  of  $15,000  or  higher  and  63  percent  of  families 
had  incomes  below  $5,000.  As  shown  in  Table  38,  the  1954  median 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  101 

family  Income  for  the  gifted  subjects  was  more  than  twice  that  of  the 
white  urban  group  ($10,866  versus  $5,069).  Furthermore,  incomes  of 
$15,000  or  more  were  reported  for  30  percent  of  the  gifted  families  and 
only  6  percent  of  the  gifted  fell  below  $5,000  in  family  income.  Again, 
it  should  be  pointed  out  that  age  is  not  controlled  in  these  comparisons. 

MORE  ABOUT  LIFE  WORK 

To  supplement  the  information  already  presented  about  the  occupa- 
tions of  the  gifted  men  and  women  and  their  vocational  achievements 
and  success  as  measured  by  honors,  recognition,  and  financial  reward, 
further  information  about  vocations  in  terms  of  personal  satisfactions 
has  been  provided  in  the  Supplementary  Biographical  Data  Blank.  This 
blank,  filled  out  during  the  1950-52  follow-up,  included  the  following 
question :  Which  of  the  following  best  describes  your  feeling  about  your 

present  vocation?  (Check)  Deep  satisfaction  and  interest ;  Fairly 

content ;  No  serious  discontent,  but  do  not  find  it  particularly  in- 
teresting or  satisfying ;  Discontented  but  will  probably  stick  it 

out ;  Strongly  dislike  and  hope  to  change Additional  space 

was  provided  for  comments  or  elaborations  of  response. 

Approximately  half  of  the  men  expressed  deep  satisfaction  and  in- 
terest in  their  work  and  another  37  percent  stated  they  were  fairly 
content.  Only  a  small  minority  (6%)  reported  themselves  seriously 
discontented.  Even  more  women  than  men  were  content  with  their 
vocational  choice ;  over  55  percent  found  deep  satisfaction  in  their  voca- 
tions and  only  3  percent  reported  serious  discontent.  Table  39  gives 
the  distribution  of  responses  to  this  question  separately  for  600  men 
and  428  women. 

When  the  opinions  on  vocational  satisfaction  are  examined  accord- 

TABLE  39 
SUBJECT'S  FEELING  ABOUT  VOCATION 

Percentages 

Men  Women 

Feeling  about  Vocation  (N  =  600)  (N  =  428) 

1.  Deep  satisfaction  and  interest 49.2  55.4 

2.  Fairly  content 37.2  35.2 

3.  No  serious  discontent  but  not  particu- 

larly satisfying 7.6  5.9 

4.  Discontented  but  will  probably  stick 

it  out 5.0  2.6 

5.  Strongly  dislike  and  hope  to  change      1.0  0.9 


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THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  103 

ing  to  particular  occupations,  some  interesting  differences  appear.  The 
comparisons  for  men  have  been  limited  to  those  occupations  in  which 
replies  were  received  from  15  or  more  persons.  Table  40  gives  the 
percentage  distribution  of  vocational  satisfaction  according  to  occupa- 
tion for  men,  and  Table  41  shows  the  relationship  of  vocational  satis- 
faction to  occupational  status  for  women. 

As  shown  in  Table  40,  those  men  who  are  in  such  Group  III  occu- 
pations as  the  skilled  crafts,  or  clerical  and  sales  work  have  the  smallest 
proportion  (28%  and  27%,  respectively)  who  report  deep  satisfaction 
and  interest  in  their  work.  An  additional  41  percent  of  men  in  each  of 
these  occupations,  however,  said  they  were  fairly  content  and  none  ex- 
pressed strong  dislike  or  desire  to  change.  Of  all  occupations,  the 
physicians  had  the  highest  percentage  (84%)  in  category  1  (deep  satis- 
faction), and  only  5  percent  of  physicians  expressed  vocational  dis- 
content. On  the  other  hand,  all  of  the  men  in  the  banking  and  finance 
occupations,  all  those  in  the  advertising  and  public  relations  group,  and 
all  the  chemists  and  physicists,  fell  in  categories  1  or  2. 

The  women  in  the  professional  and  semiprofessional  occupations  are 
the  most  satisfied  group  vocationally,  with  almost  95  percent  reporting 
themselves  at  least  content,  and  two-thirds  expressing  deep  satisfaction 
in  their  work.  Somewhat  more  than  one-half  of  full-time  housewives 
reported  satisfaction  in  their  work  and  37  percent  said  they  were  fairly 
content.  Least  satisfied  among  the  women  were  the  part-time  workers, 
nearly  all  of  whom  are  also  housewives ;  however,  the  number  of  per- 
sons in  the  part-time  category  is  too  small  for  the  figures  to  be  very 
meaningful.  It  should  be  noted  that  of  the  74  women  who  omitted  this 
item  in  the  questionnaire,  67  were  housewives. 

TABLE  41 
RELATIONSHIP  OF  VOCATIONAL  SATISFACTION  TO  OCCUPATION  (WOMEN) 

Full-time  Employment 

^Profes-  Business 

Housewife,  ^  sional  and  and 

no  outside      Part-time       semipro-  miscel- 

employment  employment     fessional  laneous 

(N  =  215)     (N  =  23}     (N  =  129)  (N  =  61) 
Feeling  about  Vocation                             %                  %                   %  % 

1.  Deep  satisfaction  and  interest 53.1  43.5  65.9  44.2 

2.  Fairly  content 36,6  39.1  28.7  42.6 

3.  No  serious  discontent  but  not 

particularly  satisfying 6.6  13.0  3.9  6.6 

4.  Discontented  but  will  probably 

stick  it  out 2.8  4.4  1.5  3.3 

5.  Strongly  dislike  and  hope  to  change      0.9  ...  ...  3.3 


104  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

Since  only  a  small  minority  of  men  and  women  express  discontent 
with  their  vocation,  comparisons  of  vocational  satisfaction  with  other 
variables  are  not  very  reliable.  However,  we  have  compared  vocational 
satisfaction  with  earned  income  for  men.  (The  relatively  small  number 
of  women  with  earnings  coupled  with  the  concentration  at  categories 
1  and  2  for  vocational  satisfaction  do  not  warrant  such  a  comparison 
for  women.)  For  men  we  find  the  expected  trend  of  decline  in  voca- 
tional satisfaction  with  decline  in  earned  income.  The  figures  are  as 
follows : 

Gifted  Men 

Feeling  about  Vocation  N      1949  Median  Earned  Income* 

Deep  satisfaction  and  interest 271  $7,741 

Fairly  content 208  6,718 

No  serious  discontent 38  6,000 

Discontented  or  strongly  dislike. ... 34  5,500 

*  The  reader  is  reminded  that  the  income  used  here  is  that  for  the  year  1949  as 
given  in  the  1950  General  Information  Blank.  The  1949  income  for  the  gifted,  just 
as  for  the  generality,  is  considerably  less  than  that  for  1954  reported  elsewhere  in 
this  chapter.  Because  data  on  vocational  satisfaction  were  obtained  in  1950-52,  the 
1949  income  is  more  pertinent  to  these  comparisons. 

There  is  a  much  more  marked  relationship  between  earned  income 
of  men  and  the  subject's  opinion  on  how  well  he  has  lived  up  to  his  in- 
tellectual abilities.  The  biographical  data  blank  asked  the  subjects  to 
check  in  a  list  of  six  the  answer  that  best  described  the  extent  to  which 
they  felt  they  had,  on  the  whole,  not  just  vocationally  or  economically, 
lived  up  to  their  intellectual  abilities.  The  six  response  choices  ranged 
from  "Fully"  to  "A  total  failure" ;  however,  no  one  among  the  gifted 
men  checked  the  last  response.  The  median  1949  earned  incomes  ac- 
cording to  opinion  on  this  variable  are  as  follows : 

Intellectual  abilities  lived  up  to:  N      1949  Median  Earned  Income 

Fully   23  $11,875 

Reasonably  well  335  7,355 

Considerably  short 165  6,339 

Far  short  or  largely  a  failure 46  4,917 

A  comparison  of  the  occupational  status  of  women  with  their  opinion 
on  how  well  they  have  lived  up  to  their  intellectual  abilities  brings  out 
some  interesting  differences.  The  figures  given  in  Table  42  show  that 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  women  in  the  professional  and  sernipro- 
fessional  occupations  thought  that  they  had  made  use  of  their  intel- 
lectual abilities  either  "Reasonably  weir  (63%)  or  "Fully''  (6%). 
Slightly  more  than  half  of  the  housewives  and  slightly  less  than  half 


THE  MATTER  OF  CAREER  105 

of  the  women  in  business  and  related  occupations  considered  that  they 
have  lived  up  to  their  intellectual  abilities.  At  the  other  extreme,  9  per- 
cent of  the  housewives  and  10  percent  of  the  business  women  replied 
that  they  have  fallen  far  short  or  were  total  failures.  There  were  also 
38  women  (29%)  among  the  professional  and  semiprofessional  group 
who  felt  that  they  were  considerably  short  of  living  up  to  their  intel- 
lectual abilities  and  three  women  at  this  occupational  level  thought  that 
they  had  fallen  far  short  of  realizing  their  potentialities.  The  number 
of  part-time  workers  is  too  small  to  be  conclusive;  however,  they  re- 
sembled the  housewives  in  their  replies  to  this  item. 

TABLE  42 

OPINION  ON  How  WELL  INTELLECTUAL  ABILITIES  LIVED  UP  TO 
BY  OCCUPATION  (WOMEN) 

Full-time  Employment 

Professional  Business  and 

Part-time        and  semipro  miscellaneous 

Extent  abilities  lived     Housewife        employment         fessional  occupations  Total 

up  to  N         %  N         %  N        %  N         %  N         % 

1.  Fully 7     2.7         1      3.7         8     6.1         1      1.6       17      3.5 

2.  Reasonably 

well 131    49.6       14    51.9       82    62.6       29    46.0     256    52.8 

3.  Considerably 

short  .....  102  38.6    9  33.3   38  29.0   27  42.8   176  36.3 

4.  Far  short  ...   19  7.2    2  7.4    3  2.3    3  4.8   27   5.6 

5.  Consider  life 

largely  a 

failure....       41  1]  1}  6] 

h  1.9  [  3.7  I  4.8  [   1.8 

6.  A  total  failure       l]  J  2J  3J 
Total  .......    264                 27                131                  63                485 

Another  item  in  the  biographical  data  blank  asked  the  subjects  to 
check  in  a  list  of  ten  those  aspects  of  life  from  which  the  greatest  satis- 
faction was  derived.  "Your  work  itself"  was  in  first  place  for  men  with 
mention  by  close  to  four-fifths  (78%)  of  those  replying.  Income,  on 
the  other  hand,  ranked  sixth  as  an  important  source  of  satisfaction,  with 
38  percent  of  men  checking  this  item. 

Neither  "your  work  itself"  nor  "your  Income"  ranked  very  high 
with  women  as  a  source  of  satisfaction.  The  former,  checked  by  47  per- 
cent of  women,  was  in  fifth  place  as  a  source  of  satisfaction,  ranking 
after  marriage,  children,  social  contacts,  and  avocational  interests.  In- 
come, mentioned  by  only  15  percent  of  women,  was  at  the  bottom  of  the 
list. 


106  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

There  is  no  composite  portrait  to  be  made  of  the  vocational  careers 
of  the  gifted  men  and  women  for  it  is  in  this  area  that  their  many  tal- 
ents and  great  versatility  are  most  evident.  The  men  range  in  occupa- 
tion from  semiskilled  labor  to  top-ranking  university  administrators, 
famed  scientists,  literary  figures,  high  level  officers  and  executives  in 
business.  The  group  is  pretty  well  concentrated  on  the  upper  rungs  of 
the  vocational  ladder  with  none  at  the  bottom  and  only  a  few  on  the 
lower  steps.  But  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  men  with  fewer  voca- 
tional achievements  are  any  less  able  intellectually  than  those  who  have 
reached  high  places.  In  some  instances,  the  choice  of  vocation  was  de- 
termined by  educational  or  occupational  opportunities,  in  others  by 
health,  and  in  still  others  it  was  a  matter  of  deliberate  choice  of  a  simple, 
less  competitive  way  of  life. 

As  for  the  gifted  women,  fewer  than  one-half  are  employed  outside 
the  home.  Although,  for  most,  a  career  is  not  of  primary  importance, 
a  number  of  women  have  reached  high  levels  of  achievement.  As  a 
group,  however,  the  accomplishments  of  the  gifted  women  do  not  com- 
pare with  those  of  the  men.  This  is  not  surprising  since  it  follows  the 
cultural  pattern  to  which  most  of  the  gifted  women  as  well  as  women 
in  general  have  succumbed.  Not  only  may  job  success  interfere  with 
marriage  success,  but  women  who  do  seek  a  career  outside  the  home 
have  to  break  through  many  more  barriers  and  overcome  many  more 
obstacles  than  do  men  on  the  road  to  success.  Although  the  gifted 
women  equaled  or  excelled  the  men  in  school  achievement  from  the  first 
grade  through  college,  after  school  days  were  over  the  great  majority 
ceased  to  compete  with  men  in  the  world's  work.  This  characteristic 
appears  to  be  due  to  lack  of  motivation  and  opportunity  rather  than  to 
lack  of  ability.  Furthermore,  an  evaluation  of  achievement  in  terms  of 
vocational  accomplishment  excludes  the  cultural  contributions  which 
the  great  majority  of  these  women  have  made  in  many  indirect  and  in- 
tangible ways  and  which  perhaps  are  never  properly  evaluated. 

In  the  following  chapter  we  will  describe  some  of  the  avocational 
interests  of  both  men  and  women  and  discuss  their  participation  in 
community  life  and  their  contributions  to  civic  betterment. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

AVOCATIONAL  AND  OTHER 
INTERESTS 


Among  the  characteristics  that  distinguished  this  group  of  subjects  in 
childhood  and  youth  was  the  breadth  and  versatility  of  their  interests.89 
It  is  therefore  interesting  to  investigate  the  extent  to  which  the  adult 
gifted  subjects  have  continued  to  cultivate  interests  and  activities  not 
directly  connected  with  their  vocations.  In  order  to  obtain  information 
of  this  kind  the  1950  General  Information  Blank  asked  the  subjects  to 
list  their  avocational  interests  and  hobbies  and  called  also  for  informa- 
tion on  memberships  in  clubs  and  organizations,  and  for  a  record  of 
service  activities  including  participation  in  community  and  civic  affairs. 
In  addition,  the  subjects  were  asked  to  report  their  publications,  if  any, 
as  well  as  to  describe  any  other  creative  work  accomplished.  The  1955 
Information  Blank,  though  it  did  not  cover  as  many  areas  as  the  1950 
report,  did  bring  up  to  date  the  information  on  publications  and  crea- 
tive work  of  all  kinds. 

AVOCATIONAL  INTERESTS 

A  wide  variety  of  avocational  interests  and  hobbies  were  mentioned 
by  the  679  men  and  510  women  who  supplied  information  on  this  item 
in  the  1950  questionnaire.  The  average  number  of  avocations  or  hob- 
bies mentioned  was  2.8  for  men  and  3.0  for  women.  About  5  percent 
of  men  and  3  percent  of  women  reported  no  hobbies  while  14  percent 
of  men  and  about  17  percent  of  women  reported  as  many  as  five  or 
more  avocational  interests.  These  figures  represent  an  increase  over 
those  of  1940  when  11  percent  of  men  and  15  percent  of  women  men- 
tioned no  hobbies  or  avocations.  In  the  same  period  the  proportion  with 
four  or  more  hobbies  increased  from  15  to  29  percent  for  men  and  from 
21  to  34  percent  for  women.  Age  itself  is  no  doubt  a  factor  contributing 
to  the  greater  interest  in  hobbies  and  avocations  in  the  late  thirties  and 
early  forties  than  had  been  shown  ten  or  twelve  years  earlier  when  the 
subjects,  at  an  average  age  of  29  were  just  getting  launched  on  their 

107 


108  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

careers.  Some  also  were  still  unmarried  in  1940  and  more  preoccu- 
pied with  the  opposite  sex  than  with  hobbies,  while  others,  recently 
married,  were  busy  with  new  homes  and  small  children.  The  greater 
vocational  and  financial  security  of  1950  in  the  case  of  men  and  the 
freedom  from  the  care  of  young  children  for  many  women  made  possible 
the  devotion  of  more  time  to  avocational  pursuits.  The  percentage  of 
men  and  women  listing  various  numbers  of  hobbies  in  1950  is  shown 
in  Table  43. 

TABLE  43 
NUMBER  OF  HOBBIES  (1950) 

Percentages 


None  

Men 
(N  =  679) 

4.9 

Women 
(N  =  510) 

3.3 

One  

15.6 

12.2 

Two     

.  .      27.4 

23  1 

Three   .....         .     .. 

22.8 

27  3 

Four     

..  .    15.3 

17  3 

Five  or  more  

14.0 

16.8 

Although,  as  would  be  expected,  there  is  considerable  sex  difference 
in  the  particular  avocational  interests  and  hobbies  mentioned,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  find  that  the  three  leading  avocations  are  the  same  for  men 
and  women  though  their  rank  order  among  the  top  three  differs.  The 
category  of  sports,  which  includes  all  active  and  participating  sports 
and  athletics  as  well  as  the  spectator  variety,  was  far  ahead  of  all  other 
interests  for  men  with  mention  by  57  percent.  In  second  place  for  men 
was  music,  followed  closely  by  gardening.  Among  women,  music 
ranked  first  as  an  avocation,  reported  by  45  percent;  gardening  was  in 
second  place,  and  sports  ranked  third.  Workshop,  in  fourth  place 
for  men,  is  the  expected  counterpart  of  the  domestic  arts  and  handwork 
which  ranks  fourth  among  women.  Only  about  4  percent  of  women 
were  interested  in  photography  as  a  hobby  as  compared  with  17  percent 
of  men.  On  the  other  hand,  the  category  "Art,"  which  included  the 
creative  arts  and  art  appreciation  and  also  applied  arts  such  as  interior 
decoration,  furniture  design,  house  plans,  et  cetera,  ranked  fifth  for 
women  with  26  percent,  and  was  mentioned  as  well  by  11  percent  of 
men.  Table  44  lists  those  hobbies  reported  by  as  many  as  10  percent 
of  either  men  or  women. 


AVOCATIONAL  AND  OTHER  INTERESTS  109 

TABLE  44 
LEADING  HOBBIES  (1950) 

Percentages 

Men  Women 

(N  =  679)  (N  =  510) 

Sports 57.4  29.2 

Music  33.1  44.9 

Gardening  30.8  41.9 

Home  workshop  activities 23 . 1  6.1 

Photography 16.9  4.3 

Art  (creative  and  applied  arts  and  art 

appreciation)  11.0  26.3 

Creative  writing 9.9  15.0 

Social  dancing  (includes  folk  dancing, 

et  cetera) 5.0  12.5 

Domestic  arts  and  handwork 2.3  28.5 

READING  AND  STUDY 

The  information  on  hobbies  tells  only  part  of  the  story  concerning 
the  uses  of  leisure  and  means  of  relaxation.  Of  particular  interest  in 
a  study  of  a  group  selected  for  intellectual  superiority  would  be  a  de- 
tailed inquiry  into  the  amount  and  kind  of  reading.  Unfortunately  our 
questions  in  this  area  were  too  general  to  yield  information  that  can  be 
quantified.  No  inquiry  was  made  regarding  amount  of  reading,  and 
the  phrasing  of  the  question  on  reading  preferences  ("What  kind  of 
reading  do  you  prefer?")  makes  it  difficult  to  determine  the  favorite 
type  of  reading,  since  a  large  proportion  of  subjects  listed  more  than 
one  preference.  However,  the  replies  indicated  that  fiction,  mentioned 
by  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  group,  is  by  far  the  most  popular  kind 
of  reading  (and  detective  fiction  ranks  high  as  a  favorite  in  this  cate- 
gory) .  Biography,  history,  and  travel  are  also  favored  but  by  a  smaller 
proportion  (35  to  40  percent).  Nonfiction  dealing  with  such  topics  as 
religion,  philosophy,  sociology,  political  affairs,  or  history,  is  the  pre- 
ferred reading  of  about  15  percent  of  the  group  and  a  preference  for 
technical  and  scientific  reading  is  mentioned  by  another  15  percent. 
Although  the  amount  of  reading  was  not  called  for,  practically  all  sub- 
jects indicated  a  reading  interest  of  some  kind, 

A  number  of  subjects  have  continued  to  study  informally.  One- 
fifth  of  the  men  and  one-fourth  of  the  women  reported  study  in  a  variety 
of  fields  either  through  independent  reading  or  in  groups  such  as  the 
Great  Books  classes.  In  addition  to  literature,  study  in  such  fields  as 
science,  philosophy,  and  foreign  languages  was  frequently  mentioned. 


110  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

SPECIAL  ABILITIES  AS  RELATED  TO  VOCATIONS 
AND  AVOCATIONS 

Many  o£  the  subjects  have  displayed  special  abilities  of  various 
kinds.  Talent  along  such  lines  as  music,  drama,  art,  mechanics,  and 
writing  were  frequently  reported  by  their  parents  and  teachers.  Often 
the  special  ability,  if  sufficiently  marked,  has  determined  the  choice  of 
vocation,  but  for  a  large  number  of  subjects  such  talents  have  found  their 
expression  in  avocational  activities  and  hobbies. 

Outstanding  among  the  special  talents  noted  is  that  of  writing.  In 
addition  to  the  work  of  the  career  writers  and  journalists,  a  vast  amount 
of  material  relating  to  their  work  has  been  published  by  men  and  women 
in  scientific,  technical,  and  other  professional  fields,  but  such  profes- 
sional output,  even  though  the  primary  vocation  is  not  writing,  does 
not  come  under  the  heading  of  avocational  writing.  There  are,  how- 
ever, between  125  and  150  subjects  who  write  as  a  hobby  or  leisure- 
time  activity.  Of  these,  some  50  men  and  40  women  have  had  their 
work  published.  Although  such  writings  are  most  often  articles  cov- 
ering a  variety  of  topics,  they  also  include  a  number  of  short  stories, 
poems,  and  plays  as  well  as  15  nonfiction  books  and  8  or  10  novels,  all 
the  work  of  avocational  writers.  Especially  noteworthy  among  these 
are  the  public  relations  executive,  previously  mentioned,  whose  first 
novel  was  a  Book-of-the-Month  selection,  a  banker  who  has  published 
more  than  25  short  stories,  the  secretary  who  wrote  a  successful  "west- 
ern" novel,  the  army  sergeant  who  writes  science-fiction  stories,  and 
the  housewife  who  has  sold  three  short  stories  and  is  now  revising  a 
promising  novel. 

Much  of  the  avocational  writing  has  not  been  published,  often  done 
rather  for  enjoyment  and  self-expression  and,  of  course,  a  great  deal 
is  not  of  the  quality  to  merit  publication.  We  can,  however,  look  for 
more  published  material  as  the  group  grows  older  and  as  leisure  time 
increases. 

A  number  of  other  subjects  have  pursued  their  specialized  gifts  only 
as  avocations.  Among  these  are  several  gifted  musicians.  Musical 
talent,  more  often  than  any  other  gift,  has  been  turned  to  use  as  a  means 
of  livelihood  while  preparing  for  another  vocation.  One  man,  for  ex- 
ample, who  has  become  a  research  scientist,  gave  evidence  at  an  early 
age  of  marked  musical  ability  and  for  some  years  he  was  undecided 


AVOCATIONAL  AND  OTHER  INTERESTS  111 

between  music  and  science  as  a  life  work.  He  began  concert  work  at 
the  age  of  14  and  later  became  a  conductor  of  a  civic  orchestra.  His 
musical  talent  enabled  him  to  finance  several  years  of  graduate  study 
and  now  provides  a  satisfying  avocational  outlet. 

A  good  many  of  those  with  dramatic  ability  are  participating  in 
such  activities  as  the  "Little  Theater"  or  "Children's  Theater"  or  other 
community  dramatics.  Some  are  actors  while  others  have  engaged  in 
stage  production  or  direction  in  amateur  productions. 

Eight  or  ten  members  of  the  group  have  displayed  above-average 
ability  in  art.  Among  these  are  four  schoolteachers  whose  paintings 
have  appeared  in  various  exhibits  and  have  been  highly  praised  by 
critics.  There  are  also  several  amateur  photographers  whose  fine 
camera  work  has  won  awards  in  competitive  shows. 

Many  other  examples  of  unusual  talent  along  specialized  lines 
could  be  given,  but  the  following  two  illustrations,  while  not  typical, 
will  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  versatility  to  be  found  in  the  group. 

A  woman  who  by  the  age  of  40  has  had  several  careers.  Her  first  suc- 
cess was  in  acting.  As  a  child  she  appeared  in  motion  pictures,  then  was  for 
several  years  a  professional  actress  in  major  theatrical  productions  both  in 
London  and  in  New  York.  She  was  also  a  professional  dancer  and  an  ama- 
teur championship  ice  skater.  After  giving  up  her  professional  acting 
career  she  continued  her  work  in  dramatics  as  an  avocation,  working  chiefly 
with  children's  theatrical  groups.  She  also  possessed  unusual  talent  in  draw- 
ing and  was  commissioned  to  do  the  illustrations  for  two  textbooks,  one  in 
anatomy  and  one  in  physiology.  She  later  entered  the  field  of  business 
where  she  has  an  executive  position.  She  has  written  several  plays  that  have 
been  produced  by  amateur  groups  and  has  also  written  two  novels.  Though 
neither  of  the  novels  has  been  published,  both  have  received  favorable  com- 
ment and  one  is  being  considered  for  publication. 

A  man  who  is  a  lawyer  maintains  a  limited  and  highly  specialized  law 
practice  in  order  to  have  time  for  his  special  interests.  Among  these  are 
research  in  stereoscopic  optics  which  grew  out  of  his  work  in  photography. 
His  research  in  this  field  of  science  is  believed  so  important  and  valuable 
that  the  government  is  very  much  interested  in  the  results  of  his  project. 
He  is  also  gifted  in  languages  and  is  proficient  in  both  German  and  French. 
He  does  considerable  translating,  mostly  of  scientific,  technical,  and  legal 
articles  for  French  and  particularly  German  publications,  and  has  also 
written  several  original  articles  and  poems  published  in  German  periodicals. 
More  recently,  he  has  specialized  in  the  Arabic  language.  He  not  only 
reads  extensively  but  has  also  taught  courses  in  Arabic.  Military  affairs 
are  still  another  avocation,  and  he  is  especially  active  in  the  National  Guard. 


112  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

In  addition  to  being  a  officer  in  the  National  Guard,  he  has  prepared  in- 
structional material  of  various  kinds,  including  the  development  of  audio- 
visual training  aids.  He  also  contributes  articles  from  time  to  time  to  mili- 
tary journals. 

MEMBERSHIPS 

An  indication  of  the  social  inclinations  and  group  interests  of  the 
gifted  adult  is  to  be  found  in  the  number  and  kinds  of  memberships 
reported  in  1950.  Since  a  number  of  the  affiliations  were  with  business 
or  professional  and  service  groups,  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  larger 
proportion  of  men  than  women  belonged  to  one  or  more  clubs  or  organ- 
izations. Less  than  15  percent  of  men  listed  no  club  or  organization 
memberships  but  31  percent  of  women  had  no  organized  group  affilia- 
tions. The  figures  on  the  number  of  memberships  in  clubs  or  organiza- 
tions are  as  follows  for  the  680  men  and  521  women  who  replied  to  this 
item : 

Memberships  Men  Women 

%  % 

None 14.7  31.5 

One  20.0  27.3 

Two 19.8  19.4 

Three   14.6  11.7 

Four  14.3  4.4 

Five  or  more 16.6  5.7 

Four  or  more  memberships  were  reported  by  31  percent  of  men 
and  10  percent  of  women.  The  organizations  were  classified  according 
to  type  of  activity  or  interest.  The  "kinds"  of  memberships  are  loose 
groupings  with  considerable  overlap  in  function.  Social  overtones  are 
found  in  all  the  groups  and,  certainly,  service  activities  are  not  limited 
to  the  so-called  service  organizations.  Many  of  the  essentially  social 
groups  adopt  a  cause  and  doubtless  many  men  and  women  join  a  serv- 
ice club  for  social  or  business  reasons.  The  classification  of  church- 
related  organizations  does  not  include  church  membership,  which  will 
be  discussed  later  in  this  chapter.  Rather,  it  refers  to  groups  made  up 
of  adherents  of  particular  faiths,  e.g.,  the  Women's  Society  for  Christian 
Service,  B'nai  B'rith,  Knights  of  Columbus,  and  other  groups  that  com- 
bine religious  activity  and  service  functions  as  well  as  promoting  social 
relationships.  The  foregoing  are  examples  of  the  overlapping  to  be  found 
in  most  of  our  membership  groups  with  the  exception  of  the  military 
organizations.  The  political  and  government  category  is  also  perhaps 


AVOCATIONAL  AND  OTHER  INTERESTS  113 

a  more  discrete  grouping  than  some  of  the  other  categories.  It  includes 
organizations  such  as  the  League  of  Women  Voters,  Good  Government 
League,  American  Civil  Liberties  Union,  World  Affairs  Council,  the 
NAACP,  the  Zionist  Organization  of  America,  United  World  Federal- 
ists, Council  for  Civic  Unity,  Americans  for  Democratic  Action,  and 
so  on.  Table  45  gives  the  proportion  of  men  and  women  affiliated  with 
each  type  of  organization. 

TABLE  45 
MEMBERSHIPS  IN  CLUBS  OR  ORGANIZATIONS  (1950) 

Percentages* 


Men  Women 

Type  o£  Organization  (N  =  680)  (N  =  521) 

Business,  professional  and  kindred 67.2  23.6 

Social  and  fraternal 39.2  39.9 

Recreational  and  hobby 15 .4  10.8 

Service  (Kiwanis,  Rotary,  Soroptomist, 

et  cetera)  11.6  4.8 

Study  and  cultural 8.4  9.6 

Politics  and  government 5.9  8.8 

Church-related  „ 4.9  9.8 

Military  (Reserve  Officer,  National 

Guard,  et  cetera) 4.7  0.4 

*  The  percentages  will  not  add  to  100,  since  (1)  the  same  individual  may  appear  in  more 
than  one  category,  and  (2)  15%  of  men  and  31%  o£  women  were  not  members  o£  any  organized 
group. 

The  business,  professional,  and  other  job-related  affiliations  were 
by  far  the  most  frequent  type,  of  membership  for  men.  Two-thirds  of 
the  men  belonged  to  at  least  one  organization  related  to  their  occupa- 
tion. This  category  included  such  professional  and  business  groups 
as  the  American  Medical  Society,  the  Bar  Association,  the  Pasteur 
Society,  the  Underwriters'  Club,  National  Association  o£  Cost  Account- 
ants, Western  Society  of  Naturalists,  American  Rocket  Society,  the 
Industrial  Relations  Research  Association,  and  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce and  similar  business  groups,  to  mention  only  a  few  of  the  many 
such  organizations.  The  category  also  included  membership  in  trade 
unions  or  guilds  to  which  at  least  65  men  and  15  or  20  women  belonged. 
Among  the  most  frequently  mentioned  labor  organizations  were  the 
guilds  and  unions  connected  with  entertainment  media  such  as  radio, 
television,  motion  pictures,  and  the  theater.  These  included  the  Musi- 
cians Union,  Radio  Writers  Guild,  Dramatists  Guild,  Radio  and  Tele- 
vision Directors  Guild,  Cameraman's  Union,  and  so  on.  Other  organ- 


114  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

izations  represented  by  five  or  more  members  were  the  newspaperman's 
guild  and  various  office  worker  unions.  Membership  in  several  other 
guilds  and  trade  unions  was  reported  but  there  were  no  more  than  two 
or  three  in  any  one  of  these. 

Several  subjects  have  been  active  in  the  labor  movement  and  have 
held  official  positions  in  their  unions  or  in  the  AF  of  L  or  CIO.  Promi- 
nent among  these  is  a  man  with  a  Ph.D.  in  economics  who  holds  the 
position  of  Economic  Counsel,  directing  research  and  negotiations  for 
a  trade  union.  He  is  a  member  of  the  American  Economic  Association 
and  the  American  Statistical  Association  as  well  as  of  the  Labor  Council 
of  the  city  in  which  he  works.  Two  men  have  been  members  of  a  local 
CIO  Council,  another  has  been  editor  of  the  union  paper,  and  still  others 
have  held  office  or  done  committee  work  in  their  organizations. 

Groups  organized  primarily  for  social  purposes  are  the  second  most 
frequent  type  of  membership  reported  by  gifted  men,  while  social  groups 
rank  first  with  the  women.  Approximately  two-fifths  of  both  men  and 
women  belong  to  one  or  more  clubs,  lodges,  or  other  social  group. 
Recreational  and  hobby  clubs  ranked  third  in  popularity  with  both  men 
and  women,  though  a  larger  proportion  of  men  than  women  mentioned 
such  groups.  The  following  are  examples  of  some  of  the  groups  in  this 
category :  Garden  Club,  Little  Theater  Group,  Sports  Car  Club,  Na- 
tional Rifle  Association,  Camera  Club,  Folk  Dancing  Club,  Mountain 
Climbing  Club,  and  Choral  Society,  to  mention  a  few. 

Only  the  "service  clubs"  among  the  remaining  categories  were 
claimed  by  as  many  as  10  percent  of  the  men.  No  other  group  had  a 
10  percent  representation  among  women,  although  both  the  church- 
related  groups  and  the  study  and  cultural  organizations  were  close  with 
9 . 8  and  9 . 6  percent  respectively. 

SERVICE  ACTIVITIES 

Although  the  data  on  memberships  are  interesting,  they  present 
only  one  aspect  of  the  gifted  adult  as  a  participating  member  of  society. 
To  complete  the  picture,  we  turn  to  the  subject's  report  on  service 
activities.  This  item  in  the  1950  General  Information  Blank  was  worded 
as  follows :  Record  of  your  service  activities  (such  as  scout  work,  wel- 
fare, religious  or  church  work,  participation  in  community  and  civic 
affairs,  P.T.A.,  etc,). 

The  memberships  in  Table  45  included  only  private  organizations 
with  formal  membership  rolls,  as  opposed  to  such  community-  or  nation- 


AVOCATIONAL  AND  OTHER  INTERESTS  115 

wide  groups  as  P.T.A.,  Red  Cross,  American  Cancer  Society,  Boy 
Scouts  (or  Girl  Scouts),  the  Y.M.C.A.,  or  any  of  the  other  civic  or 
community  welfare  groups.  Nearly  one-half  of  the  men  and  two-thirds 
of  the  women  were  engaged  in  one  or  more  of  the  activities  sponsored 
by  such  groups;  in  fact,  10  percent  of  men  and  nearly  22  percent  of 
women  mentioned  3  or  more  community  services.  In  view  of  their  age 
and  family  status,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  most  frequent  Interest 
of  both  men  (22%)  and  of  women  (48%)  was  in  organizations  con- 
cerned with  youth.  Prominent  among  these  were  the  P.T.A.,  the  Scouts, 
and  the  "Y"  About  15  percent  of  men  and  10  percent  of  women  have 
served  with  community  health  organizations  (e.g.,  Mental  Health  So- 
ciety), on  school  boards  or  as  school  trustee,  in  civilian  defense  pro- 
grams, city  planning  boards,  and  with  similar  organizations.  Service 
activities  in  connection  with  a  church  or  of  a  religious  nature  were  re- 
ported by  13  percent  of  men  and  19  percent  of  women.  Volunteer  wel- 
fare work  with  the  Red  Cross,  Crippled  Children's  Society,  Heart  As- 
sociation, Community  Chest,  Alcoholics  Anonymous,  Grey  Ladies,  and 
various  similar  projects  was  listed  by  11  percent  of  men  and  22  per- 
cent of  women. 

While  the  reports  on  service  activities  indicate  in  some  degree  the 
extent  of  participation  of  our  gifted  group  in  community  life,  they  do 
not  tell  the  full  story.  Some  subjects  are  more  modest  than  others  or 
attach  less  importance  to  their  work  with  the  result  that  their  reports 
on  this  phase  of  their  lives  are  too  general  for  classification.  However, 
even  the  minimal  figures  available  are  impressive  evidence  of  the  social 
awareness  of  the  gifted  and  their  willingness  to  contribute  to  com- 
munity life.  Through  membership  on  boards  or  in  groups  that  make 
community  policy  and  through  other  volunteer  activities,  especially  in 
the  case  of  women,  a  great  deal  of  worth-while  work  of  both  "staff"  and 
"line"  variety  is  accomplished. 

A  number  of  the  subjects  have  received  public  recognition  and  honor 
for  their  contributions  to  community  welfare  and  public  betterment, 
and  some  illustrations  follow.  Among  the  men  there  have  been :  Man 
of  the  Year  (large  western  city) ;  Recognition  Medal  for  Distinguished 
Community  Leadership  (large  western  city) ;  Outstanding  Citizen 
(county  award)  ;  four  men  with  Distinguished  Civilian  Service  Awards ; 
a  Special  Award  for  Distinguished  Service  to  Boyhood ;  three  listings 
in  America's  Young  Men — to  mention  some  of  the  more  outstanding. 
Too  numerous  to  cite  are  those  who  have  held  office  in  the  various  com- 


116  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

munlty  service  or  civic  betterment  organizations.  Included  here  are 
such  positions  as  membership  on  the  Board  of  Directors  of  Jewish  Big 
Brothers ;  chairman  of  Budget  Committee  of  Community  Chest  (metro- 
politan area) ;  member,  Board  of  Directors  of  a  city  chapter  of  the 
American  Cancer  Society;  chairman  of  a  County  Planning  Commis- 
sion ;  director  of  the  Legal  Aid  Society;  and  president,  Youth  Welfare 
League.  The  list  of  women  who  have  won  recognition  or  held  important 
posts  in  community  organizations  is  long.  Some  examples  follow :  Spe- 
cial Service  Award  (to  four  women) ;  Woman  of  the  Year  (in  educa- 
tion) ;  president  of  area  Girl  Scout  Council ;  president  of  Women's 
Board,  Museum  of  Art ;  appointment  to  the  Board  of  Education  of  a 
large  city ;  chairman  of  State  Committee  of  League  of  Women  Voters ; 
and  appointment  to  a  Grand  Jury.  The  foregoing  are  illustrations  from 
a  long  list  of  offices  held  and  citations  received  by  members  of  the  gifted 
group,  both  men  and  women. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  OUTLOOK 

Although  we  inquired  into  the  attitudes  and  interests  of  the  subjects 
with  the  results  presented  above,  the  questions  were  not  specific  so  far 
as  particular  hobbies,  interests,  or  activities  were  concerned.  An  excep- 
tion to  this  was  in  the  matter  of  religion.  The  Supplementary  Bio- 
graphical Data  blank  of  1950-52  asked  for  the  amount  of  religious  train- 
ing in  youth,  the  extent  of  religious  inclination  as  an  adult,  and  the 
religious  affiliation.  Close  to  three-fifths  of  both  men  and  women  re- 
ported that  they  received  "very  strict"  or  "considerable"  religious  train- 
ing ;  somewhat  more  than  one-third  reported  "little,"  and  about  6  per- 
cent said  they  had  no  religious  training. 

As  adults,  38  percent  of  men  and  53  percent  of  women  expressed 
moderate  to  strong  religious  inclinations.  The  599  men  and  491  women 
for  whom  data  are  available  responded  as  follows : 

Religious  inclination  Men  Women 

%  % 

Strong 10  18 

Moderate  28  35 

Little 34  24 

None  at  all 28  23 

With  respect  to  religious  affiliation,  59  percent  of  men  and  56  per- 
cent of  women  say  they  belong  to  a  particular  church,  congregation,  or 
other  religion-oriented  group.  These  figures  approximate  the  57  per- 


AVOCATIONAL  AND  OTHER  INTERESTS  117 

cent  of  the  total  population  (sexes  are  not  reported  separately)  reported 
as  church  members  in  1950.45  Among  the  gifted  an  additional  8  per- 
cent of  each  sex,  while  not  formally  affiliated  with  any  church  or  reli- 
gious group,  say  that  they  attend  services  or  are  inclined  toward  a  par- 
ticular faith.  A  small  group  of  about  4  percent  of  men  and  2  percent 
of  women  state  that  they  have  a  personal  faith  or  are  interested  in  the 
philosophy  of  religion  but  that  creeds  and  denominations  or  other  forms 
of  organized  religion  have  no  appeal  for  them.  Almost  24  percent  of 
the  men  and  32  percent  of  the  women  reported  that  they  are  not  affili- 
ated with  any  religious  group  and  made  no  comment  regarding  their 
attitude  toward  religion.  A  small  minority  (5%  of  men  and  1%  of 
women)  described  themselves  as  skeptics,  agnostics,  or,  in  a  few  cases, 
as  atheists. 

The  sex  difference  in  church  membership,  though  small  (59%  of 
men  versus  56%  of  women),  is  of  interest  because  it  is  not  in  the  ex- 
pected direction,  since  most  investigations  show  that  more  women  than 
men  are  church  members.  Havemann  and  West17  report  that  among 
college  graduates  about  10  percent  more  women  than  men  are  church 
goers. 

SUMMARY 

More  than  four-fifths  of  the  subjects  reported  an  interest  in  two 
or  more  avocational  pursuits  and  more  than  one-half  reported  three  or 
more.  The  absence  of  any  norms  precludes  a  comparison  with  the 
general  population  in  this  matter,  but  the  data  indicate  a  considerable 

breadth  and  diversity  of  interests. 

Many  of  the  special  abilities  that  had  been  evidenced  by  the  subjects 
in  their  youth  found  expression  in  hobbies  and  avocations  at  mid-life. 
Talent  in  creative  writing,  art,  dramatics,  and  music  was  especially  note- 
worthy. 

Complete  data  on  the  amount  and  kinds  of  reading  and  on  reading 
interests  are  lacking.  The  information  available,  however,  indicates 
wide  reading  interests,  covering  many  fields  of  fiction  and  nonfiction. 
Study  through  independent  reading  or  in  informal  groups  and  classes 
was  also  mentioned  by  a  number  of  subjects. 

Four-fifths  of  the  men  and  two-thirds  of  the  women  reported  mem- 
bership in  one  or  more  clubs  or  organizations,  chiefly  professional  or 
business  and  social. 

The  group  has  displayed  an  interest  in  and  responsibility  for  the 


118  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

community  and  civic  welfare  through  participation  in  a  wide  variety  o£ 
activities  such  as  organizations  concerned  with  youth,  health  programs, 
civic  betterment  projects,  and  similar  plans.  Outstanding  contributions 
along  these  lines  have  won  recognition  and  special  awards  for  a  number 
of  men  and  women. 

An  inquiry  regarding  religious  interests  elicited  the  information 
that  somewhat  less  than  two-fifths  of  the  men  and  more  than  one-half 
of  the  women  feel  moderately  or  strongly  inclined  toward  religion ;  how- 
ever, in  the  matter  of  religious  affiliation,  the  men  report  a  slightly 
higher  proportion  of  church  memberships. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL 
ATTITUDES 


The  General  Information  Blank  of  1950  called  for  information  on  politi- 
cal affiliation,  voting-  habits,  and  a  self-rating  on  radicalism-conserva- 
tism. Since  similar  information  had  been  secured  in  the  1940  follow-up, 
it  is  possible  both  to  picture  the  1950  political  and  social  attitudes  and 
to  compare  the  1950  attitudes  with  those  expressed  in  1940,36  to  learn 
what  changes  may  have  occurred  in  the  ten-year  interval. 

SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM 

The  self-ratings  on  radicalism-conservatism  (r-c  ratings)  employed 
a  cross-on-line  technique  in  which  the  rating  bar  represented  a  con- 
tinuum ranging  from  "extremely  radical"  at  one  end  to  "very  conserva- 
tive" at  the  other.  The  responses  were  evaluated  on  a  nine-point  scale. 
The  extreme  left  of  the  horizontal  bar,  defined  as  "extremely  radical/* 
was  coded  1 ;  "tend  to  be  radical/'  3 ;  "average,"  5 ;  "tend  to  be  conserva- 
tive," 7 ;  and  "very  conservative,"  at  the  extreme  right,  9.  The  inter- 
vening even  numbers,  23  4f  6,  and  8,  represented  the  midvalues  between 
the  adjacent  categories.  The  directions  were  simple :  "Rate  yourself 
on  the  following  scale  as  regards  your  political  and  social  viewpoint/' 
Only  rarely  did  a  subject  complain  of  ambiguity  in  the  question,  al- 
though an  occasional  respondent  checked  himself  at  one  level  on  political 
and  at  another  on  social  viewpoint.  For  all  but  a  very  few,  the  ratings 
presumably  represented  a  composite  of  general  attitude  on  political  and 
social  issues  based,  of  course,  on  individual  concepts  of  the  term  "po- 
litical and  social  viewpoint"  and  of  what  constitutes  the  "average"  in 
this  regard. 

A  total  of  1,241  subjects  (698  men  and  543  women)  rated  them- 
selves on  this  variable  in  1950.  The  distributions  of  the  r-c  ratings  with 
means  and  standard  deviations  are  given  in  Table  46. 


110 


120  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

TABLE  46 
SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM  (1950) 

Men  Women 

Rating  N         %  N         % 


1 

Extremely  radical  , 

1 

0.1 

2. 

^ 

Tend  to  be  radical  

9 

.  ..      62 

1.3 
8.9 

5 
56 

0, 
10 

,9 

3 

4. 
S 

Average  , 

93 
.  .  .    199 

13.3 
28.5 

76 
189 

14. 
34 

.0 
8 

6. 

7 

Tend  to  be  conservative.  .  ,  , 

82 
,  .  .    206 

11.8 
29  5 

56 
140 

10, 
7*1 

.3 

8 

8. 
Q 

Extremely  conservative  .  .  . 

29 

...      17 

4.2 

2.4 

12 
9 

2. 
1 

2 

7 

Total  

,  .  .    698 

543 

Mean  rating  

...  5.57 

5.38 

Standard  deviation  

,..  1.54 

1.45 

According  to  their  own  opinions,  more  than  half  the  men  and  nearly 
three-fifths  of  the  women  consider  themselves  "middle-of-the-roaders" 
though  the  inclination  is  slightly  to  the  right  of  center.  The  men  tend 
to  be  more  conservative  than  the  women,  with  a  mean  rating  of  5 . 5? 
as  compared  with  a  mean  of  5 . 38  for  women.  The  sex  difference  in 
mean  ratings  is  fairly  reliable  (P  =  .  03) .  The  differences  between  men 
and  women  are  found  chiefly  in  the  proportions  at  the  average  or  near- 
average  categories  (ratings  4,  5f  6)  and  at  the  conservative  end  of  the 
scale  (ratings  7,  8,  9).  Somewhat  more  women  than  men  rate  them- 
selves average  (59%  versus  54%)  and  more  men  (36%)  rate  them- 
selves conservative  than  do  women  (30%).  The  proportions  to  the 
left  of  center  are  not  very  different  for  the  sexes :  10%  of  men  and  1 1  % 
of  women  rate  themselves  lt  2,  or  3. 

There  were  602  men  and  494  women  who  rated  themselves  on  radi- 
calism-conservatism in  both  1940  and  1950.  Table  47  compares  the  two 
sets  of  ratings  made  by  the  same  subjects  ten  years  apart. 

TABLE  47 

COMPARISON  OF  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM 
OF  1940  AND  1950 

Men  Women 


_    .                                              1940                   1950                   1940  1950 

Ratings  N        %            N        %           N        %  N        % 

On  radical  side  (1, 2, 3) 136    22.6       62    10.3       91    18.4  57    11.5 

Average  or  near  average 

(4,5,6) 289    48.0  325    54.0  282    57.1  283    57.3 

On  conservative  side  (7,  8,  9)  177    29.4  215    35.7  121    24.5  154    31.2 


SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  121 

Ratings  at  the  radical  end  of  the  scale  for  these  twice-rated  people 
decreased  from  almost  23  percent  to  10  percent  for  men  and  from  18 
percent  to  11  percent  for  women  between  1940  and  1950.  The  differ- 
ences in  percentages  at  the  two  dates  are  statistically  significant  for 
both  sexes  (P  =  <  .001).  At  the  other  end  of  the  scale  the  conserva- 
tive ratings  increased  from  29  to  36  percent  for  men  and  from  24 
to  31  percent  for  women.  Ratings  at  both  extremes  of  the  scale,  how- 
ever, were  less  frequent  in  1950.  There  were  eight  men  and  four  women 
who  ranked  themselves  at  1 — the  point  farthest  to  the  left — in  1940,  but 
no  one  checked  this  point  in  1950.  At  the  far  right,  18  men  checked  9, 
extremely  conservative,  in  1940  as  compared  with  only  13  in  1950.* 
However,  of  seven  women  who  rated  themselves  9  in  1940  and  eight 
who  did  so  in  1950,  only  one  was  the  same  individual.  Six  of  the  eight 
had  been  at  the  *"tend-to-be-conservative"  point  in  1940  and  one  had 
rated  herself  at  the  far  left  in  1940 ! 

Even  though  the  general  trend  between  1940  and  1950  was  toward 
greater  conservatism,  there  were  shifts  in  both  directions,  and  there 
were  also  a  considerable  number  of  persons  whose  position  on  the  r-c 
scale  remained  unchanged.  Identical  ratings  were  given  at  both  dates 
by  37  percent  of  men  and  40  percent  of  women.  Shifting  to  a  more 
radical  point  on  the  scale  were  19  percent  of  men  and  21  percent  of 
women,  and  shifting  toward  greater  conservatism  were  44  percent  of 
men  and  39  percent  of  women.  The  correlation  between  the  self-ratings 
of  1940  and  1950  was  .  62  for  both  men  and  women. 

VARIABLES  ASSOCIATED  WITH  1950  R-C  RATINGS 

It  is  interesting  to  examine  the  relationship  between  the  political  and 
social  attitudes  and  certain  other  characteristics.  A  discussion  of  some 
of  the  variables  associated  with  the  r-c  ratings  follows. 

Age. — That  age  is  to  some  extent  a  factor  in  the  trend  toward  con- 
servatism is  shown  in  Table  48,  which  gives  the  mean  r-c  ratings  accord- 
ing to  the  year  of  birth.  The  youngest  group  of  men  (those  born  in 
1915  or  later)  averaged  reliably  less  conservative  than  those  who  were 
older,  with  a  mean  r-c  rating  of  5.18  for  the  youngest  as  compared 
with  a  mean  of  5.62  for  the  total  born  before  1915.  The  three  older 

*  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  numbers  referred  to  in  this  paragraph  are 
for  subjects  in  the  twice-rated  sample.  Table  51  gives  the  total  number  of  I  and  9 
ratings  in  1950.  In  1940,  of  the  total  667  men  with  r-c  ratings,  11  gave  themselves 
a  rating  of  I  and  21  considered  themselves  to  be  9.  Of  the  total  543  women  with 
1940  ratings,  four  rated  themselves  I  and  nine  rated  themselves  p. 


122  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

groups  of  men  do  not  differ  to  any  extent  in  mean  r-c  rating.  The  same 
tendency  toward  greater  liberalism  among  those  born  in  1915  or  later 
Is  found  for  women  but  the  difference  is  less  marked  than  for  men  and 
Is  not  statistically  significant.  The  mean  r-c  rating  for  the  total  group 
of  women  born  before  1915  is  5 .41  compared  with  5 . 16  for  the  young- 
est group.  It  is  interesting  to  observe,  however,  that  the  15  oldest 
women  are  far  more  conservative  than  any  other  group. 

TABLE  48 
1950  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM  BY  YEAR  OF  BIRTH 

Men Women. 

Mean  r-c  Mean  r-c 

Year  of  Birth          N          rating         S.D.  N          rating         S.D. 

Before  1905 58  5.62  1.48  15  6.27  1.12 

1905-1909 228  5.61  1.59  177  5.39  1.45 

1910-1914 335  5.64  1.53  277  5.38  1.46 

1915  or  later 77  5.18  1.38  74  5.16  1.39 

Education. — Among  both  men  and  women,  the  most  conservative 
are  those  who  entered  college  but  did  not  graduate.  The  college  gradu- 
ates are  nearer  the  center  (the  women  more  so  than  the  men)  and  those 
who  did  not  attend  college  at  all  fall  between  the  other  two  educational 
groups.  Within  the  college-graduate  group  the  men  show  differences 
in  r-c  rating  according  to  academic  degree.  The  range  in  ratings  is  from 
a  mean  of  5 . 03  for  the  68  men  with  a  Ph.D.  to  5 . 75  for  the  81  LLJB/s, 
and  for  the  total  group  of  280  men  with  a  graduate  degree  the  mean 
is  5.46.  The  mean  r-c  rating  for  men  with  a  bachelor's  degree  only  is 
5.72.  For  the  123  women  with  a  graduate  degree  the  mean  r-c  rating 
Is  4.95  in  comparison  with  5 . 54  for  the  women  with  only  a  bachelor's. 
Because  the  number  of  women  involved  was  relatively  small,  the  mean 
r-c  ratings  according  to  the  various  graduate  degrees  were  not  com- 
puted. Table  49  gives  the  r-c  ratings  according  to  educational  level  for 
both  men  and  women. 

TABLE  49 

1950  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM 
BY  AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION 

Men  Women 


Mean  r-c  Mean  r-c 

N          rating  SJX  N         rating  S.D. 

1.  College  graduates.    504       5.51  1.54  383       5.30  1.41 

2.  College  1  to 4 years    107       5.83  1.44  78       5.60  1.44 

3.  No  College 87       5.62  1.60  82       5.54  1.49 


SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  123 

Occupation. — As  might  be  expected,  political  and  social  viewpoint 
varies  according  to  occupation.  Men  in  the  professions  (Group  I  of  the 
Minnesota  Occupational  Scale)  have  a  mean  r-c  rating  of  5 .40  as  com- 
pared with  5.72  for  Group  II,  the  semiprofessiona!  and  managerial 
occupations.  Men  in  Group  III  (clerical,  retail  business  and  skilled 
trades),  with  a  mean  of  5 .73,  rated  themselves  almost  exactly  the  same 
as  those  in  the  higher  echelons  of  business  (Group  II).  The  most  con- 
servative group  were  the  11  men  in  Group  IV  (agriculture  and  related 
occupations)  whose  mean  r-c  rating  is  6.45.  There  are  some  marked 
differences  within  the  occupational  groups  which  are  shown  in  Table  50 
where  the  rank  order  of  21  occupations  from  most  liberal  to  most  con- 
servative is  given. 

TABLE  50 

1950  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM 
BY  OCCUPATION  (MEN)* 

(from  most  liberal  to  most  conservative) 

Mean  r-c 
Occupation  N         rating          S.D. 

1.  Personnel  directors  or  welfare  workers 11  4.27 

2.  Authors  or  journalists 17  4.29        1.27 

3.  Clergymen 7  4.43 

4.  Economists  or  political  scientists 7  4 .43 

5.  Entertainment  (directors,  producers,  writers) .  14  4.71        1.52 

6.  College  or  university  faculty 40  4,75        1 .39 

7.  Teachers  below  college  level 35       5 .08       1 .21 

8.  Architects 8       5.38 

9.  Accountants  or  statisticians , .     38       5 .47        1 .48 

10.  Chemists  or  physicists.. 32       5.50        1.46 

11.  In  advertising,  publicity,  or  public  relations. , .  22  5.64  1.32 

12.  In  clerical,  sales  and  retail  business 34  5 . 65  1 . 80 

13.  In  skilled  trades.. 25  5.68  1.30 

14.  Physicians 41  5.73  1.15 

15.  Executives  in  business  and  industry 59  5 .85  1 .24 

16.  Lawyers 71  5.85  1.41 

17.  Engineers 48  5.88  1.76 

18.  Army  or  Navy  officers 16  6.19        1.47 

19.  Banking,  finance,  or  insurance  executives, 36  6.39        1.28 

20.  Farmers  and  ranchers 11  6.45 

21.  Sales  managers,  sales  engineers,  or  technical 

salesmen 19       6.58       1.23 

*  Occnpations  in  which  fewer  than  seven  men  are  engaged  are  not  reported  separately. 


124  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

Despite  the  fact  that  for  three  of  the  occupations  in  Table  50  the 
number  of  men  rated  is  less  than  10,  the  rank  order  of  the  occupations 
seems,  in  general,  fairly  plausible.  Most  persons  would  agree  that  men 
in  occupations  ranking  1  to  6  are  usually  more  liberal  in  their  political 
attitudes  than  men  in  occupations  18  to  21,  or  than  those  in  positions 
11  to  17.  Some  may  be  surprised,  however,  that  men  in  skilled  trades 
should  rank  13  in  the  list — only  two  ranks  less  conservative  than  execu- 
tives in  business  or  industry,  and  three  ranks  less  conservative  than 
lawyers ;  or  that  farmers  should  rank  as  one  of  the  four  most  conserva- 
tive groups. 

Too  few  women  were  employed  to  permit  an  analysis  by  particular 
occupation,  but  a  comparison  of  broader  vocational  groupings  reveals 
some  interesting  differences  in  r-c  ratings.  The  most  liberal  group  are 
the  women  in  the  miscellaneous  professional  occupations  (see  Table 
31 ),  for  whom  the  mean  rating  is  4 . 63.  Women  on  college  faculties  and 
in  the  higher  professions,  and  the  school  teachers  are  both  slightly  to  the 
right  with  a  mean  rating  of  5 . 17.  The  most  conservative  are  the  busi- 
ness women  and  office  workers  whose  average  r-c  rating  is  5 . 64.  The 
housewives,  who  make  up  by  far  the  largest  group  with  a  total  of  339 
self-ratings,  have  a  mean  r-c  rating  of  5.50.  Table  51  gives  the  r-c 
ratings  for  women  by  occupation. 

TABLE  51 

1950  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM 
BY  OCCUPATION  (WOMEN) 

(from  most  liberal  to  most  conservative) 

Mean  r-c 
Occupation  N         rating:         S.D. 

Miscellaneous  professional  occupations 54  4.63  1 .40 

College  faculty  and  higher  professions 29  5.17  1 . 70 

Schoolteachers  (including  administrators  and 

counselors) 46  5 . 17  1 .46 

Housewives* 339  5.50  1.33 

Office,  business,  and  clerical  occupations 66  5 .64  1 . 51 

*  Housewives  who  have  full-time  jobs  outside  the  tome  are  included  in  the  appropriate 
occupational  category  and  do  not  appear  here. 

Income. — Surprisingly,  there  was  little  relationship  between  the 
1950  r-c  ratings  and  earned  income.  For  men  the  largest  difference  was 
between  the  322  with  earned  incomes  of  $7,000  and  above  in  1949  and 
the  330  who  earned  less  than  $7,000.  The  former  were  the  more  con- 
servative  with  a  mean  rating  of  5 . 72,  while  for  the  latter  the  mean  was 


SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  125 

5.45.  The  difference  between  the  r-c  means  is  fairly  reliable  (P  =  .02). 
For  women,  the  trend  was  reversed.  The  21  women  who  earned  $6,000 
or  more  were  the  most  liberal  of  all  the  income  groups  by  a  slight  but 
unreliable  margin.  When  mean  r-c  ratings  were  checked  against  the 
total  annual  Income  of  husband  and  wife,  whether  earned  or  unearned, 
no  significant  relationship  was  found.  However,  both  the  gifted  men 
and  gifted  women  whose  total  family  income  was  in  the  upper  half 
(above  $7,000)  rated  themselves  slightly  more  conservative  than  those 
whose  incomes  fell  below  $7,000. 

Intelligence. — One  would  like  to  know  how  the  r-c  variable  is  related 
to  intelligence  in  the  general  population.  Our  data  do  not  answer  this 
question  since  our  gifted  subjects  as  adults  score  far  above  the  generality 
of  adults  on  the  Concept  Mastery  test  and  were,  by  definition,  in  the  top 
one  percent  of  the  generality  in  childhood  IQ.  However,  despite  the 
restricted  intellectual  range  in  our  gifted  group,  Table  52  shows  that 
radicalism  (or  liberalism)  is  positively  associated  with  higher  scores  on 
the  Concept  Mastery  test  in  1950.  Men  who  rated  themselves  as  1,  2, 
or  3  have  a  mean  CMT  score  of  155  compared  with  a  mean  of  140*  for 
men  who  rate  themselves  as  4t  5f  or  (5.  The  difference  is  highly  reliable 
(P  =  .001).  The  corresponding  drop  in  the  CMT  score  for  women, 
from  a  mean  of  153.7  for  those  on  the  radical  side  to  132.7  for  those 
in  the  center,  is  even  more  significant  (P  =  .0001).  Those  who  rated 
themselves  as  conservatives  have  the  lowest  CMT  scores  but  the  drop 
in  mean  score  for  ratings  7 }  83  or  9  as  compared  with  ratings  of  4,  5f 
or  6  is  not  very  reliable  for  either  sex  (P  =  .  09  for  men  and  .  05  for 
women). 

Additional  evidence  of  the  tendency  for  those  who  score  highest  on 
intelligence  tests  to  be  less  conservative  is  found  in  the  data  for  the 
Stanford-Binet  IQ's.  Although  the  number  of  cases  with  IQ's  of  170 
or  over  is  too  small  to  warrant  conclusions,  it  is  of  interest  to  find  that 
the  42  men  with  childhood  IQ's  of  170  and  above  who  rated  themselves 
on  radicalism-conservatism  in  1950  have  a  mean  rating  of  5.07  (S.D. 
1 .80)  as  against  a  mean  of  5 . 57  for  the  total  group  of  men.  For  the  31 
women  whose  Binet  IQ's  were  170  and  above  in  childhood,  the  1950 
mean  r-c  rating  is  5 . 19  (S.D.  1 . 51 )  in  comparison  with  a  mean  of  5 . 38 
for  all  gifted  women.  Although  the  subjects  with  the  highest  childhood 
IQ's  are  more  liberal  on  the  average  than  other  members  of  the  group, 

*  These  are  "point"  scores,  not  IQ's. 


126  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

they,  too,  grew  more  conservative  In  the  Interval  between  1940  and 
1950.  The  r-c  mean  in  1940  for  this  selected  group  of  highest  IQ  was 
4,83  for  men  and  4.90  for  women.36 

TABLE  52 

1950  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM 
BY  SCORES  ON  CONCEPT  MASTERY  TEST 

Concept  Mastery  Scores 


Men  Women 

Ratings  N          Mean        S.D.  N          Mean        S.D. 

On  radical  side  (1,2,3) ..........    49      155.1      21.7  50      153.7      15.8 

Average  or  near  average  (4, 5,  6)  280      140.1      28.6  248      132.7     29.0 

On  conservative  side  (7, 8}  9) 179      135.3      29.0  116      126.8     25.9 

General  adjustment. — A  comparison  of  the  ratings  on  mental  health 
and  general  adjustment*  shows  that  those  subjects  classified  as  hav- 
ing some,  or  serious  difficulty  in  adjustment  rated  themselves  reli- 
ably more  liberal  on  the  average  than  those  considered  satisfactory  in 
adjustment.  Table  53  gives  the  mean  r-c  rating  according  to  general 
adjustment  classification.  The  differences  in  mean  r-c  rating  between 
those  rated  satisfactory  in  general  adjustment  and  those  with  some, 
or  serious  difficulty  (categories  2  and  3)  are  statistically  significant 
(P  =  <  .001  for  both  sexes). 

TABLE  53 

1950  SELF-RATINGS  ON  RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM  BY 
GENERAL  ADJUSTMENT  CLASSIFICATION 

Men  Women 


Mean  r-c  Mean  r-c 

General  Adjustment  N        rating        S.D.  N         rating      S.D. 

1.  Satisfactory 511      5.72      1 .49  375     5 .54      1 .34 

2.  Some  difficulty  ......     136      5.22      1.50  133      5.13      1.58 

3.  Serious  difficulty  ....      51      5.20      1.76  35      4.60      1.63 

The  tendency  for  the  less  well-adjusted  to  rate  themselves  as  more 
liberal  in  political  and  social  viewpoint  was  also  found  in  1940.  At  that 
time,  however,  these  subjects  were  farther  to  the  left  with  mean  r-c 
ratings  of  4. 61  and  4. 64  for  men  and  women,  respectively. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  Chapter  IV  that  the  subjects  who  experience 
difficulty  in  emotional  and  social  adjustment  make  reliably  higher  scores 
on  the  Concept  Mastery  test.  As  shown  above,  the  subjects  to  the  left 

*  See  Chapter  IV  for  a  description  of  these  ratings. 


SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  127 

of  center  on  the  r-c  scale  also  have  significantly  higher  scores  on  the 
Concept  Mastery  test.  Thus,  we  have  a  situation  in  which  those  more 
liberally  inclined,  socially  and  politically,  make  significantly  higher  test 
scores  (Concept  Mastery)  and  are  also  more  often  classified  as  having 
some,  or  serious  difficulty  in  general  adjustment.  We  might  theorize 
that  the  higher  Concept  Mastery  scores  of  the  less  well-adjusted  may 
be  due  to  their  relative  lack  of  social  ability,  their  tendency  toward  more 
solitary  interests,  and  consequent  greater  preoccupation  with  Intellec- 
tual pursuits.  The  corresponding  tendency  to  liberal  or  radical  attitudes 
found  for  the  less  well-adjusted  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  lack 
of  conformity  that  contributes  to  the  adjustment  difficulties. 

Although  the  differences  disclosed  In  Tables  52  and  53  are  statisti- 
cally reliable,  care  should  be  taken  against  overgeneralization.  Actually 
the  differences  In  mean  r-c  ratings  according  to  general  adjustment  are 
much  too  small  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  conservatives  are  usually 
well-adjusted  and  that  radicals  usually  are  not.  Nor  in  view  of  the  small 
number  of  cases  at  the  radical  end  of  the  scale  can  it  be  concluded  that 
those  who  rate  themselves  left  of  center  are  more  intelligent,  as  meas- 
ured by  test  scores,  than  the  conservative  members  of  the  group. 

In  Interpreting  the  data  on  political  and  social  attitudes,  particularly 
with  reference  to  radicalism-conservatism,  It  should  be  borne  In  mind 
that  these  opinions  were  expressed  chiefly  in  1950  and  1951.  If  a  similar 
opinion  survey  of  the  group  were  made  now,  the  results  might  be  differ- 
ent, not  alone  because  of  the  Influence  of  age,  but  because  of  the  changes 
in  the  political  and  economic  scene  and  In  the  concept  of  what  consti- 
tutes radicalism  or  conservatism. 

POLITICAL  AFFILIATIONS 

Information  on  political  preferences  was  supplied  by  approximately 
1,250  subjects  in  response  to  the  question :  On  national  issues  which  of 
the  political  parties  most  nearly  represents  your  leanings?  (Check) 

Democrat Republican Socialist Communist Other 

(Specify) .  Somewhat  more  than  one-half  (55%)  of  the  men  and 

one-half  of  the  women  said  they  were  Republicans.  One-third  of  the 
men  and  two-fifths  of  the  women  said  they  were  Democrats  and  2.6 
percent  of  each  sex  identified  themselves  as  Socialists.  No  one  claimed 
membership  In  the  Communist  party.  Not  aligned  regularly  with  any 
of  the  major  parties  were  7.8  percent  of  men  and  6  percent  of  women. 
Most  of  the  latter  described  themselves  as  "Independent"  and  not  fitting 


128  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

a  party  pattern,  though  a  few  said  "None."  Slightly  more  than  one  per- 
cent of  each  sex  mentioned  a  minor  party,  usually  the  Independent  Pro- 
gressive Party  or  other  liberal  group. 

In  the  1940-50  decade  the  political  affiliations  showed  the  same 
trend  toward  greater  conservatism  as  had  been  shown  by  the  r-c  ratings. 
About  10  percent  more  men  and  8  percent  more  women  called  them- 
selves Republican  in  1950  than  in  1940.  The  number  of  Democrats 
among  men  decreased  from  40  percent  in  1940  to  the  33  percent  of  1950 
while  the  proportion  of  women  under  the  Democratic  banner  changed 
hardly  at  all.  The  Socialists  in  each  sex  decreased  from  approximately 
4  percent  in  1940  to  2.6  percent  in  1950.  At  the  earlier  date  a  larger 
proportion  (10  percent  of  men  and  12  percent  of  women)  were  in  the 
"None"  or  "Independent"  category. 

A  comparison  of  party  affiliation  with  r-c  self-rating  shows  the 
Democrats,  both  men  and  women,  to  be  reliably  more  liberal  in  politi- 
cal and  social  viewpoint  than  were  the  Republicans.  The  Democrats, 
though  slightly  left  of  center,  were  much  closer  to  the  middle  than  were 
the  Republicans.  Among  men,  the  Democrats  with  a  mean  r-c  rating 
of  about  4.51  were  only  a  half-step  from  the  middle  point  on  the  scale, 
while  the  Republicans  who  averaged  6.48  were  nearly  one  and  one-half 
steps  to  the  right  of  center.  The  women  showed  the  same  trend  though 
the  contrast  was  not  quite  so  marked:  Democrats  averaged  4.60  on 
the  r-c  scale  and  Republicans  6.25.  Those  with  no  affiliation  were  only 
slightly  to  the  left  of  center  with  a  mean  4.91  for  men  and  4.88  for 
women.  Table  54  gives  the  percentage  distribution  of  political  party 
preferences  and  includes  also  the  mean  self -rating  on  radicalism-con- 
servatism according  to  political  preference. 

TABLE  54 

POLITICAL  PREFERENCES  AND  RELATIONSHIP  TO 
RADICALISM-CONSERVATISM  (1950) 

Men  Women 


Mean  r-c  Mean  r-c 

Political  Party                         N           %          rating  N  %         rating 

Republican 387     55.1      6.48*  268  49.5      6.25* 

Democrat    233     33.1      4.51  219  40.5  4.60 

Socialist 18       2.6     3.47  14  2.6  3.07 

Other   10       1.4     2.88  7  1.3  3.57 

No  affiliation 55       7.8     4.91  33  6.1  4.88 

*  The  critical  ratio  of  the  difference  in  mean  r-c  rating  between  Republicans  and  Democrats 
is  21 .9  for  men  and  16.5  for  women. 


SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  129 

VOTING  HABITS 

The  General  Information  Blank  of  1950,  like  that  of  1940,  asked  for 
the  voting  habits  of  the  subjects  with  respect  to  national,  state,  and 
local  elections.  Replies  to  this  item  were  received  from  690  men  and 
531  women.  The  responses  classified  in  Table  55  show  that  those 
voting  "always"  or  "usually"  include  approximately  94  percent  of  men 
and  98  percent  of  women  in  national  elections,  90  percent  of  men  and 
95  percent  of  women  in  state  elections,  85  percent  of  men  and  91  percent 
of  women  in  local  elections.  These  percentages  are  enormously  higher 
than  those  reported  for  the  general  population,  about  60  percent  of 
whom  vote  in  national  elections.  The  percentages  of  gifted  subjects 
voting  "usually"  or  "always"  was  about  the  same  in  1950  as  it  had  been 
in  1940.  One  can  only  conclude  that  these  gifted  people  as  a  rule  take 
their  civic  obligations  much  more  seriously  than  is  true  of  the  general 
population. 

TABLE  55 
VOTING  HABITS  (1950) 

Percentage  Voting 


National  Elections 

State  Elections 

Local  Elections 

Men   Women 

Men   Women 

Men   Women 

Always  

...    82.0    89.4 

70.2    75.1 

49.2    58.7 

Usually  

12  0      8.7 

20.4    20.0 

36.2    32  6 

Occasionally   .... 

1.9      0  2 

3.2      1.9 

6.5      4  5 

Rarelv  or  never  

...      4.1      1.7 

6.2     3.0 

8.1      4.2 

POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES 

Several  men  in  our  group  have  sought  public  office,  some  success- 
fully, some  not.  Among  the  elective  offices  held  are  two  superior  court 
judgeships  (one  of  these  men  has  since  been  appointed  to  the  appellate 
court),  one  municipal  court  judgeship,  two  members  of  the  state  legis- 
lature and  one  high  state  official  whose  name  has  been  mentioned  as  a 
possible  United  States  senator.  Another  was  defeated  in  a  campaign 
for  superior  court  judge,  two  have  been  unsuccessful  candidates  for  the 
State  Assembly  and  one  man  was  defeated  in  his  candidacy  for  the 
United  States  House  of  Representatives.  Membership  on  the  state 
central  committee  of  either  the  Democratic  or  Republican  party  has  been 
reported  by  several  men  and  still  others  have  served  on  county  central 
committees  of  the  major  political  parties.  Altogether,  a  number  of  sub- 
jects, both  men  and  women,  have  engaged  in  political  campaigns  as  com- 
mittee members,  speakers,  precinct  workers,  and  other  activities. 


130  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

Others  have  held  appointive  offices,  both  federal  and  state.  Among 
these  are  two  lawyers  who  are  judicial  referees  in  state  agencies.  Still 
others  have  held  important  administrative  positions  in  agencies  of  the 
federal  government.  One  of  the  most  important  appointive  positions 
was  held  by  a  young  man  who,  while  still  under  33  years  of  age,  was 
made  an  administrative  assistant  to  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  served  as  a  member  of  the  White  House  executive  staff  for  nearly 
seven  years.  He  won  a  Rockefeller  Public  Service  Award  for  outstand- 
ing service  in  government. 

Our  records  are  not  complete  on  the  extent  of  participation  of  the 
group  in  political  affairs,  since  no  specific  information  on  that  type  of 
activity  has  been  sought  since  the  1950-52  follow-up.  Appointment  or 
election  to  public  office  was  reported  in  the  1955  mailed  questionnaire 
but  minor  activities  were  not  called  for  and,  therefore,  were  seldom 
mentioned.  Because  of  the  Incomplete  nature  of  the  present  data  and 
because  of  the  relative  youth  of  the  subjects,  a  record  of  greater  partici- 
pation In  public  life  and  more  political  activity  can  be  looked  for  in  future 
reports. 

SUMMARY 

The  men  and  women  of  the  gifted  group  at  mid-life  consider  them- 
selves close  to  the  center  on  a  radicalism-conservatism  continuum.  Both 
sexes  are  slightly  to  the  right  of  the  mid-point  on  the  nine-point  scale 
on  which  they  rated  themselves.  In  political  affiliation,  somewhat  more 
than  half  of  the  men  and  about  half  of  the  women  are  Republicans.  The 
group  as  a  whole  has  a  remarkable  voting  record,  as  shown  by  the  better 
than  90  percent  who  report  that  they  "usually"  or  "always"  vote  In 
state  and  national  elections. 

A  comparison  of  the  self-ratings  on  radicalism-conservatism  made 
in  1950  with  those  made  in  1940  shows  a  shift  in  the  direction  of  less 
radicalism  and  greater  conservatism.  Although  the  increase  in  propor- 
tion at  the  more  conservative  end  of  the  scale  from  1940  to  1950  was 
statistically  reliable,  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that  about  one-fifth  of 
the  group  had  moved  closer  to  the  liberal  end  of  the  political  spectrum 
in  1950.  The  changes  in  political  affiliation  from  1940  to  1950  are  in 
the  same  direction  as  the  r-c  ratings ;  that  is,  in  1950  more  labeled  them- 
selves as  Republicans  and  fewer  as  Democrats  than  in  1940, 

Several  members  of  the  group  have  held  important  elective  offices 


SOME  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  ATTITUDES  131 

and  several  others  have  been  appointed  to  responsible  positions  in  both 
state  and  federal  government.  Since  the  group  is  still  relatively  young, 
greater  participation  in  political  life  and  government  can  be  expected. 
An  examination  of  the  political  and  social  attitudes  in  the  light  of 
certain  other  variables  reveals  a  relationship  between  r-c  ratings  and 
age,  extent  of  education,  and  certain  occupations.  There  is  also  a 
tendency  for  ratings  of  1,  2,  3  on  the  r-c  scale  (tend  to  be  radical)  to 
be  associated  with  higher  Concept  Mastery  test  scores  as  well  as  with 
poorer  general  social  and  emotional  adjustment. 


CHAPTER  X 

MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND 
OFFSPRING 


Marriage  and  marital  adjustment  are  important  factors  in  a  portrayal 
of  anyone's  life  success  and  happiness.  How  do  our  gifted  subjects  com- 
pare in  these  respects  with  the  generality  of  men  and  women  of  corre- 
sponding age? 

Consider  first  the  incidence  of  marriage  to  1955  when  the  average 
age  of  the  subjects  was  approximately  44  years.  By  that  time  93  percent 
of  the  men  and  almost  90  percent  of  the  women  had  married.  These 
percentages  are  based  on  the  780  men  and  the  610  women  living  in  1955 
for  whom  information  on  marital  status  was  available.  The  incidence 
of  marriage  for  both  sexes  is  about  the  same  as  that  reported  for  the 
total  population  of  corresponding  age.  In  other  words,  being  highly 
intelligent  apparently  is  not  an  obstacle  to  marriage  for  either  sex,  at 
least  that  is  true  for  this  group.  Table  56  gives  the  proportion  at  speci- 
fied age  levels  who  have  ever  been  married  regardless  of  current  marital 
status.  The  average  age  at  marriage  (first  marriage  if  more  than  one) 
was  25  years  for  men  and  23  years  for  women.  Twenty-three  men  (3 %  ) 
married  before  reaching  age  21  and  9  of  these  wrere  18  when  married. 
The  number  of  women  married  before  age  21  was  71  (12%)  and  of 
these  19  were  married  at  ages  16  to  18.  On  the  other  hand,  six  men  and 
nine  women  did  not  marry  until  after  age  40.  Among  the  men,  45  has 
been  the  oldest  age  at  first  marriage,  and  for  women  it  was  51  years. 

TABLE  56 
INCIDENCE  OF  MARRIAGE  ACCORDING  TO  AGE 

N*  Percentage  Who  Have  Married 

Age  Men    Women  Men  Women 

Under  40 83          74  96.4        93.2 

40-44 361        316  91.7        90.5 

45-49 262        200  93.5        87.5 

50  and  over 74          20  93.2        80.0 

Ages  combined 780        610  93.0        89.5 

*  The  N*s  here  do  not  include  4  men  and  2  women  for  whom  information  on  1955  marital 
status  was  not  obtained;  nor  do  they  include  the  11  men  and  17  women  lost  since  1928  or  earlier. 

132 


MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND  OFFSPRING  133 

A  comparison  of  the  Incidence  of  marriage  among  the  men  college 
graduates  of  our  group  with  that  reported  for  the  generality  of  men 
graduates  indicates  that  the  marriage  rate  is  about  the  same  for  both. 
Our  women  graduates,  however,  are  more  likely  to  marry  than  are 
the  generality  of  college  women :  86  percent  of  the  gifted  women  grad- 
uates (all  ages)  have  married  as  compared  with  74  percent  of  college 
women  in  general  in  the  40-49-year  age  bracket  and  65  percent  of  those 
age  50  and  over.17  The  women  college  graduates,  although  they  are  less 
likely  to  remain  spinsters  than  are  college  women  in  general,  have  a 
somewhat  lower  marriage  rate  than  that  of  the  noncollege  women  in 
our  group.  Table  57  gives  the  proportion  of  gifted  men  and  women  at 
three  educational  levels  who  have  married. 

TABLE  57 

INCIDENCE  OF  MARRIAGE  ACCORDING  TO  EDUCATIONAL  LEVEL 

Percentages 


Men  Women 


Are,  or  have  Are,  or  nave 

Education  Single     been  married  Single      been  married 

College  graduates 7.6          92.4  13.8          86.2 

College  1  to  4  years 6.4          93.6  4.9  95.1 

No  college 5.0          95.0  2.1  97.9 

Slightly  more  than  one-fifth  of  those  who  married  have  a  history 
of  divorce.  There  are  150  men  and  121  women  who  have  been  divorced 
one  or  more  times.  These  figures  represent  21  percent  of  the  men  and 
22  percent  of  women  who  have  married.  Of  these,  32  men  (4.1%)  and 
29  women  (4.7%)  have  been  divorced  two  or  more  times,  and  6  men 
and  13  women  have  been  divorced  three  or  more  times.  It  is  impossible 
to  say  how  the  divorce  rate  in  the  gifted  group  compares  with  that  for 
the  generality  of  corresponding  age  since  the  census  data  report  only 
current  marital  status.  However,  recent  estimates  of  the  proportion 
of  marital  failures  among  the  general  population  of  the  United  States 
place  the  figure  at  one-fourth  to  one-third  of  the  marriages  formed.9 
According  to  the  figures  for  our  gifted  group  the  divorce  rate  to  1955 
is  somewhat  less  than  that  for  the  generality.  However,  it  is  still  too 
soon  to  say  how  the  ultimate  divorce  rate  will  compare  with  that  of  the 
total  population  since  additional  divorces  can  be  expected  among  our 
subjects. 

Divorce  is  negatively  associated  with  extent  of  schooling.  Those 


134  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

subjects  who  graduated  from  college  have  a  far  lower  divorce  rate  than 
do  the  nongraduates.  Of  the  college  graduates  who  married,  only  16 
percent  have  a  history  of  divorce  while  32  percent  of  those  who  attended 
college  one  or  more  years  without  graduating  and  36  percent  of  those 
who  did  not  enter  college  have  a  record  of  one  or  more  marital  failures. 
The  trend  toward  a  lower  divorce  rate  for  those  who  completed  college 
agrees  with  data  reported  by  other  investigators  for  college  graduate 
populations.  In  a  questionnaire  survey  made  in  1950  of  the  Harvard 
class  of  1926,  in  which  replies  were  received  from  61  percent,  the  figures 
indicated  that  13  percent  of  those  who  had  married  had  been  divorced 
one  or  more  times.14  An  investigation  made  by  Havemann  and  West17 
of  the  total  U.S.  college  graduate  population  showed  the  proportion 
divorced  at  the  time  of  the  survey  to  be  6  percent.  However,  the  latter 
inquiry  did  not  include  a  record  of  marital  history  and  because  of  the 
known  tendency  of  college  graduates  to  remarry  soon  after  divorce, 
this  estimate  is  undoubtedly  too  low.  Table  58  shows,  separately  for 
men  and  women,  according  to  educational  level  the  proportion  who 
(1)  are  single,  (2)  are  married  (no  divorce),  and  (3)  have  been 
divorced  one  or  more  times  (may  currently  be  married). 

TABLE  58 

MARITAL  STATUS  BY  AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION 
College  College  1  to 


Graduates 

4  Years               No  College            Total  Group 

Men    Women 

(N  =    (N  = 
Marital  Status               555)     413) 

Single  7.6    13.8 

Men    Women        Men    Women        Men    Women 
(N  =     (N  =        (N  =    (N  =        (N  =    (N  = 
125)      101)           100)      96)            780)     610) 

6.4      4.9         5.0      2.1         7.0    10.5 

Married,  no  divorce    77.8    72.4 
Divorced  1  or  more 
times  14.6    13.8 

60.8    70.3       67.0    57.3       73.7    69.7 
32.8    24.8       28.0    40.6       19.3    19.8 

%  of  N  ever  married 
who  have  been  di- 
vorced       15.8    16  0 

35  0    26  0       29  5    41  6       20  7    22  1 

Among  men,  the  divorce  rate  is  highest  for  those  who  attended  col- 
lege one  or  more  years  without  graduating,  and  for  women  the  propor- 
tion of  divorces  is  greatest  for  those  who  did  not  enter  college.  One 
might  speculate  that  greater  restlessness,  discontent,  or  frustration  are 
felt  by  the  gifted  persons  who  do  not  complete  college  and  that  this  may 
bring  about  greater  instability  in  personal  relationships. 


MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND  OFFSPRING  135 

The  data  for  women  support  this  theory,  at  least  to  the  extent  that 
general  adjustment  ratings  are  related  to  both  education  and  divorce. 
Those  women  who  either  did  not  complete  or  did  not  enter  college  are 
less  often  rated  satisfactory  in  mental  health  and  general  adjustment. 
The  proportion  rated  satisfactory  at  each  of  these  two  educational  levels 
is  58  percent,  compared  with  69  percent  of  the  college  graduates.  In 
the  case  of  men  the  relationship  of  education  to  general  adjustment 
rating  is  quite  different.  The  college  graduates  and  those  with  one  to 
four  years  of  college  have  almost  exactly  the  same  proportion  of  satis- 
factory ratings,  69  and  68  percent,  respectively.  But  the  highest  pro- 
portion of  satisfactory  ratings  (73%)  is  found  for  the  men  who  did  not 
enter  college !  As  would  be  expected,  those  persons  with  a  history  of 
divorce  are  much  less  likely  to  be  rated  satisfactory  in  general  adjust- 
ment. The  proportion  of  men  rated  satisfactory  is  75  percent  for  the 
unbroken  marriages  and  57  percent  for  those  with  a  divorce  history. 
The  difference  is  even  more  marked  for  women  with  71  percent  of 
persons  with  unbroken  marriages  rated  satisfactory  as  against  46  per- 
cent of  those  with  a  record  of  divorce. 

Neither  marriage  nor  divorce  rate  in  this  group  is  correlated  with 
childhood  IQ  for  either  men  or  women.  The  adult  Concept  Mastery 
test  scores  show  practically  no  difference  between  the  married  with  no 
divorce  record  and  those  with  a  history  of  divorce.  The  highest  CMT 
scores,  however,  were  made  by  the  single  men  and  the  single  women ! 
The  34  single  men  scored  about  17  points  higher,  on  the  average,  than 
those  who  had  married  (with  or  without  divorce) .  The  difference  was 
somewhat  less  in  the  case  of  women,  with  the  single  women  averaging 
a  little  over  8  points  higher  than  those  who  had  married. 

If  the  divorce  rate  in  our  group  as  a  whole  is  high,  so  also  is  the 
rate  of  remarriage.  Of  the  150  men  who  have  been  divorced,  86  percent 
remarried  at  least  once.  Of  the  121  women  with  a  history  of  divorce, 
slightly  more  than  two-thirds  remarried.  When  the  gifted  subjects 
divorce  and  remarry  they  tend  to  make  happy  remarriages.  In  1950, 
the  subjects  were  given  a  shortened  form  of  the  1940  test  of  marital 
happiness  which  has  been  reported  in  detail  in  earlier  publications.36'38 
In  the  1950  test  the  maximum  happiness  score  was  44  points.  For  both 
men  and  women  there  is  virtually  no  difference  in  the  happiness  score 
between  those  whose  first  marriage  was  intact  and  those  with  a  history 
of  divorce(s)  and  remarriage (s).  The  mean  scores  by  marital  history 
of  currently  married  men  and  women  follow : 


136  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

Men  Women 

(N  =  515)  (N  =  393) 

Divorced,  Divorced, 

Married,       remarried  Married,  remarried 

no  1  or  more  no  1  or  more 

divorce  times  divorce  times 

Mean  Happiness  Score 23.7  25.6  25.5  25.4 

S.D 9.7  8.8  9.8          10.3 

Other  data  collected  in  the  1950-52  field  follow-up  throw  additional 
light  on  the  marriages  and  marital  happiness  of  the  gifted.  For  example, 
the  questionnaire,  The  Happiness  of  Your  Marriage,  included  the  item 
How  happy  has  your  marriage  "been?  The  subjects  and  their  spouses 
were  asked  to  check  the  appropriate  description  from  a  list  of  seven  re- 
sponse choices.  The  percentage  distribution  of  responses  for  the  gifted 
and  spouses  who  replied  were  as  follows : 

Husbands 

Wives  of  of 

Gifted  Gifted  Gifted  Gifted 

Men  Men  Women         Women 

(N  =  515)    (N  =  327)  (N  =  393)    (N  =  242) 

%  %  %  % 

Extraordinarily  happy 26 . 8  35.8                  27 . 7           33.9 

Decidedly  more  happy  than 

average 42.1  33.6  46.1  40.5 

Somewhat  more  happy  than 

average 14.2  17.4  12.7  11.6 

Average 10.7  9.5                   7.6            7.8 

Somewhat  less  happy  than 

average 3.1  2.8  2.3  2.5 

Decidedly  less  happy  than  av- 
erage   2.9  0.6  2.6  2.9 

Extremely  unhappy ....  0.2  0.3                    1.0             0.8 

Various  studies19  of  marital  happiness  for  the  population  in  general 
indicate  that  about  65  percent  of  married  couples  are  happy  or  very 
happy,  about  20  percent  just  get  along  (probably  equivalent  to  our 
rating  of  average),  and  about  15  percent  are  more  or  less  unhappy.  In 
contrast  to  these  figures,  better  than  85  percent  of  our  subjects  and  their 
spouses  rate  their  marriage  above  average  in  happiness  and  only  about 
6  percent  say  they  are  less  happy  than  average  (actually  only  3.7% 
of  wives  of  gifted  men  say  they  are  more  or  less  unhappy).  Further- 
more, according  to  the  subjects'  Supplementary  Biographical  Data 
blank  73  percent  of  gifted  men  and  70  percent  of  gifted  women  consider 
their  marriage  to  be  an  aspect  of  life  from  which  the  greatest  satisfaction 
is  derived. 

A  discussion  of  marriage  in  the  gifted  group  would  not  be  complete 


MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND  OFFSPRING       *  ''  ^  137 


without  a  description  of  the  men  and  women  they  marry.  (In  the  matter 
of  age,  the  gifted  subjects  follow  the  general  pattern  in  our  culture  by 
choosing  wives  who  are  younger  and  husbands  who  are  older  than  them- 
selves. The  gifted  men  tend  to  marry  women  about  two  and  one-half 
years  younger  while  the  gifted  women  as  a  rule  choose  husbands  about 
three  and  one-half  years  older.  These,  however,  are  only  the  averages 
and  there  were  many  exceptions.  For  example,  8 . 6  percent  of  the  gifted 
men  chose  wives  who  were  two  or  more  years  older,  including  four  men 
whose  wives  were  from  8  to  12  years  older.  On  the  other  hand,  6  per- 
cent of  gifted  men  married  women  10  or  more  years  younger  than 
themselves,  and  in  one  instance  the  gifted  husband  (his  second  mar- 
riage) was  22  years  older  than  his  wife.  As  for  the  gifted  women,  close 
to  10  percent  married  men  who  were  two  to  ten  years  younger,  while 
seven  women  chose  husbands  from  20  to  26  years  older  than  themselves. 
Investigations  agree  in  showing  education  to  be  an  important  factor 
in  marital  selection,  so  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  many  of  our  gifted 
subjects  have  married  college  graduates.  More  than  one-half  of  the  hus- 
bands and  more  than  two-fifths  of  the  wives  graduated  from  college. 
The  proportion  of  college  graduates  who  have  taken  degrees  beyond  the 
bachelor's  is  24  percent  of  husbands  and  10  percent  of  wives.  For  the 
514  husbands  and  684  wives  for  whom  adequate  information  on  educa- 
tion was  available,  the  percentages  with  varying  amounts  of  schooling 
are  as  follows  : 

Husbands  Wives 

%  % 

College  graduation 55.6  42.4 

College  1  to  4  years  (no  degree) 18.7  26.5 

High-school  graduation 19.9  27.3 

High  school  1  to  3  years 3.7  2.5 

No  formal  schooling  beyond  eighth  grade  , .  2.1  1 .3 

As  might  be  expected  in  view  of  their  superior  education,  a  large 
proportion  of  the  husbands  are  in  Group  I  (professional)  and  Group  II 
(serniprofessiona!  and  higher  business  occupations)  when  classified  ac- 
cording to  the  Minnesota  Occupational  Scale  described  in  Chapter  VII. 
Table  59  gives  the  percentage  distribution  by  occupational  group  for 
the  husbands  of  gifted  women.  On  the  distaff  side  considerably  fewer 
of  the  wives  of  gifted  men  are  gainfully  employed  than  are  the  married 
gifted  women.  Whether  this  Is  a  reflection  of  the  superior  economic 
status  of  the  gifted  men  or  of  the  greater  desire  on  the  part  of  the  gifted 
women  for  a  career  outside  the  home  Is  a  matter  for  speculation.  In  any 


138  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

case,  only  15.5  percent  of  the  wives  of  gifted  men  are  employed  as  com- 
pared with  29  percent  of  the  married  gifted  women.  Of  the  employed 
wives,  11  percent  are  in  college  teaching,  research,  or  the  higher  pro- 
fessions, 23  percent  are  in  schoolteaching  or  administration  (below 
college  level),  and  22  percent  are  in  other  professional  occupations. 
About  39  percent  are  in  business  and  office  work,  and  slightly  more 
than  5  percent  are  in  miscellaneous  occupations  (e.g.,  telephone  opera- 
tor, hairdresser,  et  cetera). 

TABLE  59 
OCCUPATIONAL  CLASSIFICATION  OF  HUSBANDS  OF  GIFTED  WOMEN 

Percentage 

of  Husbands 

of  Gifted 

Women 

Occupational  Group  (N  =  487) 

I.  Professional    34.9 

II.  Managerial,  official,  and  semiprofessional 39. 0 

III.  Retail  business,  clerical,  skilled  crafts,  and  kindred. ..  18.7 

IV.  Agriculture  and  related  occupations 4.3 

V.  Semiskilled  3.1 

Evidence  of  the  generally  superior  intellectual  caliber  of  the  spouses 
is  found  in  the  Concept  Mastery  test  scores.  In  the  field  fallow-up  of 
1950-52  the  Concept  Mastery  test,  Form  T,  was  given  to  690  spouses 
including  273  husbands  and  417  wives.  The  mean  CMT  score  for  the 
spouses  was  95.3  and  the  standard  deviation,  42.7.  Although  their 
average  score  is  close  to  one  S.D.  lower  than  the  mean  score  of  the  gifted 
subjects,  about  one-fifth  scored  above  the  average  for  the  gifted  group. 
The  spouses  appear  to  good  advantage  when  compared  to  various  other 
groups  tested  on  the  CMT.  The  data  for  these  comparisons  are  given 
in  Tables  15  and  17  of  Chapter  V.  The  mean  CMT  score  of  115  found 
for  the  total  college  graduate  group  among  the  spouses  is  higher  than 
the  average  of  such  college  graduate  populations  as  the  Electronic  Engi- 
neers and  Scientists  (Mean  score  =  94),  the  applicants  to  the  graduate 
Public  Health  Education  curriculum  (Mean  score  =  97),  and  the  75 
miscellaneous  college  graduates  (Mean  score  =  112).  For  those 
spouses  who  have  taken  graduate  degrees,  the  mean  CMT  scores  range 
from  149  for  those  with  a  Ph.D.  to  131  for  those  with  a  master's  or 
equivalent  degree.  In  contrast,  two  groups  of  advanced  graduate  stu- 
dents at  a  leading  university  made  average  scores  on  the  CMT  of  118 
and  119,  respectively.  The  spouses  who  entered  but  did  not  complete 
college  score  above  the  college  graduates  in  the  Air  Force  group  (means 
of  85  and  73,  respectively).  Moreover,  the  spouses  who  did  not  go  be- 


MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND  OFFSPRING  139 

yond  high  school  averaged  slightly  higher  on  the  CMT  than  did  the 
total  Air  Force  group,  both  graduates  and  nongraduates. 

Since  in  the  original  survey  of  1921-22  the  majority  of  the  subjects 
were  chosen  from  fairly  limited  geographical  areas  (chiefly  the  San 
Francisco  Bay  cities  and  the  Los  Angeles  metropolitan  district),  some 
intermarriages  among  them  could  be  expected.  Actually,  in  ten  In- 
stances a  gifted  subject  has  married  a  member  of  the  group;  however, 
three  of  these  marriages  terminated  in  divorce.  In  two  cases,  the  mar- 
riage was  very  brief  and  there  were  no  children ;  the  third  couple  were 
married  for  12  years  and  had  two  children  before  being  divorced.  Among 
the  seven  unbroken  marriages  one  couple  has  4  children,  two  couples 
have  2  children  each,  one  has  1  child,  and  three  couples  are  childless. 

THEIR  CHILDREN 

By  1955  the  gifted  group  had  produced  approximately  2,500  chil- 
dren. This  number  includes  both  living  and  deceased  off  spring  and  also 
takes  into  account  the  children  of  those  subjects  who  had  died  or  whose 
marriages  had  been  terminated  by  divorce  or  death  of  the  spouse.  Fig- 
ured on  this  basis,  the  average  number  of  children  for  all  subjects  who 
had  ever  been  married  was  1 .9. 

The  typical  family  with  children  has  2.4  children.  The  gifted  men 
have  slightly  larger  families  with  2.5  children  as  compared  with  2.3 
for  the  gifted  women.  The  two  largest  families,  however,  are  those  of 
gifted  women,  one  of  whom  has  8  children  and  the  other  7.  There  are 
also  six  gifted  women  and  three  gifted  men  who  have  families  of  6  chil- 
dren. At  the  other  extreme,  among  those  who  have  married,  23  percent 
of  the  women  and  16  percent  of  the  men  have  no  children.  Table  60 
gives  the  percentage  distribution  of  family  size  for  all  subjects  who 
have  ever  been  married. 

The  sex  ratio  among  the  offspring  is  107.8  boys  to  100  girls.  This 
represents  a  slightly  greater  excess  of  boys  than  that  reported  for  the 

TABLE  60 

NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN  FOB.  ALL  SUBJECTS  EVER  MARRIED- 

Percentages 


Gifted  Gifted 

Number  of  Children  Per  Family  Men  Women  Total 

5  or  more 3,1  2.8  3.0 

4 9.7  6.4  8.3 

3... 19.6  17.5  18.7 

2 , 33.8  30.9  32.5 

1 17.6  18.9  18.2 

None 16.2  23.4  19.3 


140  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

total  U.S.  white  population.  Dublin  gives  the  sex  ratio  for  the  generality 
as  106  boys  born  to  every  100  girls.10  Among  the  offspring  are  36  pairs 
of  twins,  including  one  family  with  three  sets  and  another  family  with 
two  sets.  This  is  1 . 5  percent  of  the  births,  which  is  a  slightly  greater 
frequency  of  twins  than  that  given  for  the  United  States  as  a  whole, 
where  during  the  years  1941-47  there  was  one  set  of  twins  for  every  95 
births  (1. 05 %).10 

Of  the  2,452  offspring  born  to  1955,  a  total  of  84  (3 . 5%)  have  died 
and  an  additional  15  stillbirths  have  been  reported.  More  than  half 
(56%)  of  the  deaths  occurred  in  the  first  year  of  life.  Those  children 
who  survived  the  first  year  died  from  a  number  of  causes,  of  which 
accidents  were  the  most  frequent  with  11  deaths,  and  leukemia  second 
with  5  deaths.  Age  at  death  ranged  from  a  few  hours  after  birth  to  28 
years,  but  all  except  7  deaths  took  place  before  age  5.  Two  children 
died  of  brain  tumor  at  ages  12  and  14,  respectively;  3  were  accidentally 
killed  (automobile)  at  ages  11, 12,  and  28 ;  one  died  of  a  heart  condition 
at  8  years ;  and  one  of  bulbar  poliomyelitis  at  19  years  of  age. 

It  is  too  early  to  predict  the  ultimate  fertility  rate  of  the  gifted  group. 
At  the  time  of  last  report  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  gifted  women  who 
had  married  were  under  45  years  of  age.  Ten  percent  were  in  the  35-to- 
39-year  age  bracket  and  2  percent  were  under  35  years  of  age.  The  wives 
of  the  gifted  men  were  younger,  with  71  percent  under  45  years  of  age. 
About  one-fourth  of  the  wives  were  age  35  to  39  years,  and  9  percent 
were  under  age  35.  Whether  the  present  birth  rate  of  2 . 4  children  per 
mother  will  increase  sufficiently  to  equal  the  2.8  children  per  mother 
required  to  maintain  the  stock  remains  to  be  seen.10  However,  in  view 
of  the  number  of  child-bearing  years  remaining  to  both  the  gifted 
women  and  the  wives  of  the  gifted  men,  a  considerable  increase  in  the 
number  of  children  can  be  expected. 

A  comparison  of  family  size  with  extent  of  education  shows  a  tend- 
ency for  the  college  graduates  among  the  gifted  subjects  to  have  some- 
what larger  families,  with  the  differences  according  to  education  being 
greater  for  men  than  for  women.  The  following  percentages  illustrate 
the  differences  in  family  size  at  three  levels  of  educational  attainment : 

No  Children  3  or  More  Children 

Gifted            Gifted  Gifted            Gifted 

Men            Women  Men            Women 

%                  %  %                   % 

College  graduates 14.0          23.0  36.9          28.9 

College  1  to  4  years 17.3  21.8  19.2  28.7 

No  college 19.0          21.7  29.8          21.7 


MARRIAGE,  DIVORCE,  AND  OFFSPRING  141 

The  larger  families  of  the  college  graduates  may  be  a  reflection  of 
their  superior  economic  status.  Our  data  show  that  those  subjects  with 
the  larger  families  have  somewhat  greater  total  family  incomes.  The 
median  total  family  income  in  1954  of  couples  with  no  children  was 
$10,462  in  comparison  with  $11,688  for  those  with  3  or  more  children. 
Of  the  subjects  with  total  family  incomes  of  $25,000  and  above,  52  per- 
cent had  3  or  more  children  while  only  about  29  percent  of  those  with 
incomes  below  $10,000  had  as  many  as  3  children.  However,  the  rela- 
tionships are  only  suggestive  and  should  be  interpreted  with  caution 
since  age  also  is  related  both  to  income  and  to  size  of  family. 

In  the  field  follow-up  investigations  of  1939-40  and  1951-52  the 
field  workers  gave  Stanf ord-Binet  tests  to  all  of  the  offspring  of  suitable 
age  who  could  be  reached.  In  addition,  a  number  of  subjects  who  live 
at  a  distance  have,  over  the  years,  brought  their  children  to  Stanford 
University  for  testing.*  Altogether  we  have  tested  a  total  of  1,525  off- 
spring, 786  boys  and  739  girls.  The  distributions  of  IQ's  with  means 
and  S.D/s  are  given  in  Table  61. 

TABLE  61 

STANFORD-BlNET  IQ'S  OF  OFFSPRING 

Binet  IQ                                                          Boys                Girls  Total 

190-199    1                  1  2 

180-189    37m 

170-179    15                 9  24 

160-169 22                33  55 

150-159    82                66  148 

140-149    ....  137              125  262 

130-139    188              180  368 

120-129    181              168  349 

110-119    86                83  169 

100-109    53                48  101 

90-99    13                11  24 

80-89 426 

70-79 1                 6  7 

Total    786  739  1,525 

MeaaScore 132.7  132.7  132.7 

S.D 17.2  18.0  17.6 

The  mean  IQ  was  exactly  the  same  for  boys  and  girls,  namely, 
132.7  and  the  S.D.5s  differed  only  slightly  in  the  direction  of  greater 

*  As  pointed  out  earlier,  the  subjects  who  live  outside  California  and  could  not 
be  seen  by  a  field  worker  have  been  encouraged  to  call  at  the  research  headquarters 
for  a  personal  interview  whenever  they  might  be  visiting  in  the  area. 


142  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

variability  among  girls.  Approximately  one-third  of  the  offspring  tested 
at  IQ  140  and  above  while  about  2  percent  had  IQ's  below  100.  An 
additional  13  offspring  (7  boys  and  6  girls)  to  whom  we  did  not  give 
the  Stanford-Binet  were  known  to  be  mentally  defective.  Of  these,  4 
have  died,  6  are  in  schools  or  institutions  for  the  mentally  retarded,  and 
3  are  being  cared  for  at  home.  Of  the  total  2,452  offspring,  the  13  men- 
tally defective  constitute  only  one-half  of  one  percent,  and  of  the  1,525 
offspring  whose  intellectual  status  has  been  determined,  they  represent 
only  0.8  percent.  In  the  generality  the  proportion  of  the  mentally  de- 
fective (defined  as  below  IQ  70)  is  very  much  greater.  Of  the  nearly 
3,000  subjects  on  whom  the  1937  revision  of  the  Stanford-Binet  test 
was  standardized,  2 . 6  percent  tested  below  70.  This  percentage,  how- 
ever, does  not  fully  represent  the  incidence  of  the  lower  levels  of  mental 
ability  in  the  generality  age  2  to  18  years  since  the  extreme  cases  of 
mental  deficiency  are  not  found  in  the  regular  school  classes.28 

Some  50  gifted  subjects  have  adopted  children.  One  family  has 
taken  four  children  for  adoption ;  one  has  adopted  3,  and  several  have 
2  adopted  children.  Although  it  would  have  been  interesting  to  have 
given  intelligence  tests  to  all  the  adopted  children,  limitations  of  time 
and  funds  made  it  impractical.  However,  18  of  these  children  have  been 
tested  and  found  to  have  Binet  IQ's  ranging  from  about  100  to  146  with 
6  of  the  adopted  children  testing  at  IQ  135  or  higher. 

Although  at  the  present  writing  a  large  proportion  of  our  subjects 
are  still  under  45  years  of  age,  more  than  50  have  already  reached  grand- 
parent status  with  a  total  of  115  grandchildren  so  far  reported.  One  of 
our  gifted  women  who  herself  had  5  children  is  the  grandmother  of  11 
at  age  52. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE 


In  the  past  35  years  we  have  watched  the  gifted  child  advance  through 
adolescence  and  youth  into  young  manhood  and  womanhood  and  on 
into  the  fuller  maturity  of  mid-life.  The  follow-up  for  three  and  one- 
half  decades  has  shown  that  the  superior  child,  with  few  exceptions,  be- 
comes the  able  adult,  superior  in  nearly  every  aspect  to  the  generality. 
But,  as  in  childhood,  this  superiority  is  not  equally  great  in  all  areas. 

The  superiority  of  the  group  is  greatest  in  intellectual  ability,  in 
scholastic  accomplishment,  and  in  vocational  achievements.  Physically 
the  gifted  subjects  continue  to  be  above  average  as  shown  in  their  lower 
mortality  record  and  in  the  health  ratings.  While  personal  adjustment 
and  emotional  stability  are  more  difficult  to  evaluate,  the  indications  are 
that  the  group  does  not  differ  greatly  from  the  generality  in  the  extent 
of  personality  and  adjustment  problems  as  shown  by  mental  break- 
downs, suicide,  and  marital  failures.  The  incidence  of  such  other  prob- 
lems as  excessive  use  of  liquor  (alcoholism)  and  homosexuality  is  below 
that  found  in  the  total  population,  and  the  delinquency  rate  is  but  a  small 
fraction  of  that  in  the  generality.  Clearly,  desirable  traits  tend  to  go 
together.  No  negative  correlations  were  found  between  intelligence  and 
size,  strength,  physical  well-being,  or  emotional  stability.  Rather,  where 
correlations  occur,  they  tend  to  be  positive. 

THE  MAINTENANCE  OF  INTELLECTUAL  ABILITY 

But  if  gifted  children  are  not  prone  to  die  young  or,  as  they  advance 
in  years,  to  become  invalids  or  to  suffer  to  any  extent  from  serious 
personality  or  behavior  difficulties,  there  remains  the  question  of  the 
degree  to  which  their  intellectual  superiority  is  maintained.  The  evi- 
dence on  this  score  is  conclusive.  Test  scores  of  1927-28,  1939-40,  and 
1950-52  showed  the  majority  of  the  subjects  close  to  the  99th  percentile 
of  the  generality  in  mental  ability.  This  is  true  even  of  those  whose 
careers  have  not  been  particularly  notable.  It  was  especially  interesting 
to  find  that  the  average  Concept  Mastery  test  score  in  1950-52  of  the 

143 


144  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

subjects  who  did  not  go  beyond  high  school  was  exactly  the  same  as 
that  of  a  group  of  candidates  for  advanced  degrees  (Ph.D.  or  M.D.) 
at  a  leading  university.  Of  additional  interest  are  the  results  of  a  com- 
parison of  Concept  Mastery  test  scores  of  1939-40  and  1950-52  of  the 
same  individuals.  The  test-retest  comparisons  showed  a  reliable  gain 
in  the  11-to-l 2-year  interval  with  increases  occurring  at  all  educational 
and  occupational  levels,  in  all  grades  of  ability,  and  at  all  ages.  The  data 
indicate  that  not  only  do  the  mentally  superior  hold  their  own  but  that 
they  actually  increase  in  intellectual  stature  as  measured  by  the  Concept 
Mastery  test. 

APPRAISAL  OF  ACHIEVEMENT 

From  a  practical  and  utilitarian  point  of  view  the  real  test  of  the 
significance  and  value  of  this  high  degree  of  mental  ability  is  the  use 
that  is  made  of  such  gifts.  The  record  points  to  the  conclusion  that 
capacity  to  achieve  far  beyond  the  average  can  be  detected  early  in  life 
through  tests  of  general  intelligence.  Such  tests  do  not,  however,  enable 
us  to  predict  what  direction  the  achievement  will  take,  and  least  of  all 
do  they  tell  us  what  personality  factors  or  what  accidents  of  fortune  will 
affect  the  fruition  of  exceptional  ability.  The  appraisal  of  achievement 
of  our  gifted  subjects  will  be  concerned  with  their  educational  attain- 
ments, their  vocational  records,  their  contributions  to  knowledge  and 
culture,  and  the  recognitions  that  have  been  won. 

The  educational  record  is  a  distinguished  one.  More  than  85  percent 
of  the  group  entered  college  and  almost  70  percent  graduated.  The  latter 
figure  is  about  ten  times  as  high  as  for  a  random  group  of  comparable 
age.  Graduation  honors  and  elections  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa  and  Sigma  Xi 
were  at  least  three  times  as  numerous  as  in  the  typical  senior  college 
class,  with  better  than  35  percent  of  the  graduates  winning  one  or  more 
of  these  distinctions.  Of  the  college  graduates,  two-thirds  of  the  men 
and  nearly  three-fifths  of  the  women  continued  for  graduate  study.  The 
PhD.  or  comparable  doctorate  was  taken  by  80  men  and  17  women, 
or  about  14  percent  of  men  and  4  percent  of  women  graduates.  The 
proportion  of  the  generality  of  college  graduates  of  corresponding  age 
who  have  taken  a  doctorate  is  less  than  3  percent. 

The  occupations  and  occupational  status  of  the  men  and  women  of 
the  gifted  group  have  been  evaluated  separately  since  the  pattern  in  this 
regard  has  been  so  different.  The  careers  of  women  are  often  deter- 
mined by  extraneous  circumstances  rather  than  by  training,  talent,  or 


THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE  145 

vocational  interest.  Whether  women  choose  to  work  and  the  occupa- 
tions they  enter  are  influenced  both  by  their  own  attitudes  and  by  the 
attitudes  of  society  toward  the  role  of  women.  These  attitudinal  factors 
also  influence  the  opportunities  for  employment  and  for  advancement. 
But  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  American  women  on  the  average  occupy 
positions  of  lesser  responsibility,  opportunity,  and  remuneration  than 
do  men,  the  gifted  women  have  a  number  of  notable  achievements  to 
their  credit,  some  of  which  have  been  described  in  Chapter  VII.  That 
7  women  should  be  listed  in  American  Men  oj  Science,5  2  in  the  Direc- 
tory of  American  Scholars,*  and  2  in  Who's  Who  in  America,42  all  be- 
fore reaching  the  age  of  43,  is  certainly  many  times  the  expectation  from 
a  random  group  of  around  700  women.  Publications  of  the  gifted 
women  include  5  novels ;  5  volumes  of  poetry  and  some  70  poems  that 
have  appeared  in  both  literary  and  popular  journals ;  32  technical,  pro- 
fessional, or  scholarly  books ;  around  50  short  stories ;  4  plays ;  more 
than  150  essays,  critiques,  and  articles;  and  more  than  200  scientific 
papers.  At  least  5  patents  have  been  taken  out  by  gifted  women.  These 
figures  do  not  include  the  writings  of  reporters  and  editors,  nor  a  va- 
riety of  miscellaneous  contributions. 

Our  gifted  women  in  the  main,  however,  are  housewives,  and  many 
who  also  work  outside  the  home  do  so  more  to  relieve  the  monotony 
of  household  duties  or  to  supplement  the  family  income  rather  than 
through  a  desire  for  a  serious  career.  There  are  many  intangible  kinds 
of  accomplishment  and  success  open  to  the  housewife,  and  it  is  debatable 
whether  the  fact  that  a  majority  of  gifted  women  prefer  housewifery 
to  more  intellectual  pursuits  represents  a  net  waste  of  brainpower.  Al- 
though it  is  possible  by  means  of  rating  scales  to  measure  with  fair  accu- 
racy the  achievement  of  a  scientist  or  a  professional  or  business  man, 
no  one  has  yet  devised  a  way  to  measure  the  contribution  of  a  woman 
who  makes  her  marriage  a  success,  inspires  her  husband,  and  sends 
forth  well-trained  children  into  the  world. 

As  for  the  men,  close  to  three  and  a  half  decades  after  their  selection 
solely  on  the  ability  to  score  in  the  top  one  percent  of  the  school  popu- 
lation in  an  intelligence  test,  we  find  86  percent  in  the  two  highest 
occupational  categories :  I,  the  professions,  and  II,  the  semiprof essions 
and  higher  business.  Eleven  percent  are  in  smaller  retail  business,  cleri- 
cal, and  skilled  occupations.  Farming  and  related  occupations  account 
for  nearly  2  percent  and  the  remaining  1  percent  are  in  semiskilled  work. 
The  representation  in  the  two  highest  groups  is  many  times  their  pro- 


146  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

portionate  share,  with  a  corresponding  shortage  of  gifted  representation 
in  the  middle  occupational  levels.  No  gifted  men  are  classified  in  the 
lowest  levels  of  the  occupational  hierarchy  (service  workers  and  slightly 
skilled  or  unskilled  laborers),  whereas  13  percent  of  the  total  urban 
population  are  in  these  categories. 

A  number  of  men  have  made  substantial  contributions  to  the  physi- 
cal, biological,  and  social  sciences.  These  include  members  of  university 
faculties  as  well  as  scientists  in  various  fields  who  are  engaged  in  re- 
search either  in  industry  or  in  privately  endowed  or  government-spon- 
sored research  laboratories.*  Listings  in  American  Men  of  Science5 
include  70  gifted  men,  of  whom  39  are  in  the  physical  sciences,  22  in 
the  biological  sciences,  and  9  in  the  social  sciences.  These  listings  are 
several  times  as  numerous  as  would  be  found  for  unselected  college 
graduates.  An  even  greater  distinction  has  been  won  by  the  three  men 
who  have  been  elected  to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  one  of 
the  highest  honors  accorded  American  scientists.  Not  all  the  notable 
achievements  have  been  in  the  sciences ;  many  examples  of  distinguished 
accomplishment  are  found  in  nearly  all  fields  of  endeavor. 

Some  idea  of  the  distinction  and  versatility  of  the  group  may  be 
found  in  biographical  listings.  In  addition  to  the  70  men  listed  in 
American  Men  of  Science,  10  others  appear  in  the  Directory  of  Ameri- 
can Scholars,  a  companion  volume  of  biographies  of  persons  with  no- 
table accomplishment  in  the  humanities.6  In  both  of  these  volumes, 
listings  depend  on  the  amount  of  attention  the  individual's  work  has 
attracted  from  others  in  his  field.  Listings  in  Who's  Who  in  America?* 
on  the  other  hand,  are  of  persons  who,  by  reasons  of  outstanding 
achievement,  are  subjects  of  extensive  and  general  interest.  The  31  men 
(about  4%)  who  appear  in  Who's  Who  provide  striking  evidence  of 
the  range,  of  talent  to  be  found  in  this  group.  Of  these,  13  are  members 
of  college  faculties  representing  the  sciences,  arts  and  humanities ;  8  are 
top-ranking  executives  in  business  or  industry;  and  3  are  diplomats. 
The  others  in  Who's  Who  include  a  physicist  who  heads  one  of  the  fore- 
most laboratories  for  research  in  nuclear  energy ;  an  engineer  who  is 
a  director  of  research  in  an  aeronautical  laboratory ;  a  landscape  archi- 
tect ;  and  a  writer  and  editor.  Still  others  are  a  farmer  who  is  also  a 

*A  detailed  study  of  the  vocational  correlates  and  distinguishing  character- 
istics of  scientists  and  nonscientists  among  the  gifted  men  was  made  in  1952  under 
the  sponsorship  of  the  Office  of  Naval  Research  and  has  been  published  in  a  sepa- 
rate monograph^  and  also  appeared  in  an  abbreviated  version  as  an  article  in  the 
Scientific  Americanos 


THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE  147 

government  official  serving  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture ;  a  briga- 
dier general  in  the  United  States  Army ;  and  a  vice-president  and  di- 
rector of  one  of  the  largest  philanthropic  foundations. 

Several  of  the  college  faculty  members  listed  in  Who's  Who  hold 
important  administrative  positions.  These  include  an  internationally 
known  scientist  who  is  provost  of  a  leading  university,  and  a  distin- 
guished scholar  in  the  field  of  literature  who  is  a  vice-chancellor  at  one 
of  the  country's  largest  universities.  Another,  holding  a  doctorate  in 
theology,  is  president  of  a  small  denominational  college.  Others  among 
the  college  faculty  include  one  of  the  world's  foremost  oceanographers 
and  head  of  a  well-known  institute  of  oceanography ;  a  dean  of  a  leading 
medical  school ;  and  a  physiologist  who  is  director  of  an  internationally 
known  laboratory  and  is  himself  famous  both  in  this  country  and  abroad 
for  his  studies  in  nutrition  and  related  fields. 

The  background  of  the  eight  businessmen  listed  in  Who's  Who  is 
interesting.  Only  three  prepared  for  a  career  in  business.  These  include 
the  president  of  a  food  distributing  firm  of  national  scope ;  the  controller 
of  one  of  the  leading  steel  companies  in  the  country ;  and  a  vice-president 
of  one  of  the  largest  oil  companies  in  the  United  States.  Of  the  other 
five  business  executives,  two  were  trained  in  the  sciences  (both  hold 
Ph.D.'s)  and  one  in  engineering;  the  remaining  two  were  both  lawyers 
who  specialized  in  corporation  law  and  are  now  high-ranking  execu- 
tives. The  three  men  in  the  diplomatic  service  are  career  diplomats  in 
foreign  service. 

Additional  evidence  of  the  productivity  and  versatility  of  the  men 
is  found  in  their  publications  and  patents.  Nearly  2000  scientific  and 
technical  papers  and  articles  and  some  60  books  and  monographs  in  the 
sciences,  literature,  arts,  and  humanities  have  been  published.  Patents 
granted  amount  to  at  least  230.  Other  writings  include  33  novels,  about 
375  short  stories,  novelettes,  and  plays ;  60  or  more  essays,  critiques, 
and  sketches ;  and  265  miscellaneous  articles  on  a  variety  of  subjects. 
The  figures  on  publications  do  not  include  the  hundreds  of  publications 
by  journalists  that  classify  as  news  stories,  editorials,  or  newspaper 
columns,  nor  do  they  include  the  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  radio, 
television,  or  motion  picture  scripts.  Neither  does  the  list  include  the 
contributions  of  editors  or  members  of  editorial  boards  of  scientific,  pro- 
fessional, or  literary  magazines.  There  have  also  been  a  sizable  number 
of  scientific  documents  reporting  studies  in  connection  with  government 


148  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

research  which  are  restricted  publications.  We  do  not  have  information 
on  the  exact  number  or  content  of  these. 

The  foregoing  are  only  a  few  illustrations  of  conspicuous  achieve- 
ment and  could  be  multiplied  many  times.  They  by  no  means  represent 
all  of  the  areas  or  types  of  success  for  there  is  scarcely  a  line  of  creditable 
endeavor  in  which  some  member  of  the  group  has  not  achieved  outstand- 
ing success.  There  are  men  in  nearly  every  field  who  have  won  national 
prominence  and  8  or  10  who  have  achieved  an  international  reputation. 
The  latter  include  several  physical  scientists,  at  least  one  biological 
scientist,  one  or  two  social  scientists,  two  or  three  members  of  the  United 
States  State  Department,  and  a  motion  picture  director.  The  majority, 
though  not  all  so  outstanding  as  those  mentioned,  have  been  highly  suc- 
cessful vocationally  from  the  standpoint  of  professional  and  business 
accomplishment  as  measured  by  responsibility  and  importance  of  posi- 
tion, prestige,  and  income. 

There  is,  however,  another  side  to  the  picture.  There  are  various 
criteria  of  success,  but  we  are  concerned  here  with  vocational  achieve- 
ment, and  success  has  been  defined  as  the  extent  to  which  the  subject 
has  made  use  of  his  intellectual  ability.  This  calls  for  a  very  high  level 
of  accomplishment  since  the  intellectual  level  is  so  high  and  not  all  have 
measured  up  to  it  vocationally.  Although  not  more  than  three  or 
possibly  four  men  (again  women  are  not  included)  could  be  considered 
failures  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  group,  there  are  80  or  90  men 
whose  vocational  achievements  fall  considerably  short  of  the  standard 
set  by  the  group  as  a  whole. 

Since  the  less  successful  subjects  do  not  differ  to  any  extent  in  in- 
telligence as  measured  by  tests,  it  is  clear  that  notable  achievement  calls 
for  more  than  a  high  order  of  intelligence.  After  the  1940  follow-up  a 
detailed  analysis  was  made  of  the  life  histories  of  the  ISO  most  successful 
and  150  least  successful  men  among  the  gifted  subjects  in  an  attempt  to 
identify  some  of  the  nonintellectual  factors  that  affect  life  success.  The 
results  of  this  study  indicated  that  personality  factors  are  extremely 
important  determiners  of  achievement.  The  correlation  between  suc- 
cess and  such  variables  as  mental  health,  emotional  stability,  and  social 
adjustment  is  consistently  positive  rather  than  negative.  In  this  respect 
the  data  run  directly  counter  to  the  conclusions  reached  by  Lange- 
Eichbaum  in  his  study  of  historical  geniuses.24  A  number  of  interesting 
differences  between  the  two  sub-groups  were  brought  out  but  the  four 


THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE  149 

traits  on  which  they  differed  most  widely  were  "persistence  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  ends/'  "integration  toward  goals,"  "self-confidence," 
and  "freedom  from  inferiority  feelings."  In  the  total  picture  the  great- 
est contrast  between  the  two  groups  was  in  all-round  emotional  and 
social  adjustment,  and  in  drive  to  achieve.  This  study  is  fully  reported 
in  The  Gifted  Child  Grows  Up?* 

OUTLOOK  FOR  FUTURE  ACHIEVEMENT 

The  careers  of  the  gifted  subjects,  now  in  their  mid-forties,  are 
pretty  well  set  in  their  present  courses.  In  a  very  few  cases,  there  are 
no  higher  rungs  on  the  particular  professional  or  executive  ladder  they 
have  climbed.  But  for  most  of  the  group,  advances  to  greater  levels  of 
achievement  and  more  important  roles  can  be  looked  for.  Lehman25 
has  shown  that  the  median  age  at  which  positions  of  leadership  are 
reached  has  greatly  increased  in  the  last  150  years.  In  field  after  field 
the  increase  has  amounted  to  8,  10,  or  even  12  years  and  numerous 
positions  of  high-ranking  leadership  are  most  likely  to  be  acquired  and 
retained  from  fifty  to  seventy  years  of  age.  Lehman  has  also  shown 
that  in  nearly  all  fields  of  intellectual  achievement  the  most  creative 
period  is  between  thirty  and  forty-five  years.  But  here  Lehman  is  con- 
cerned with  quality  of  achievement.  Productivity  as  measured  by  quan- 
tity is  often  greater  after  forty  than  before.  And  regardless  of  the  merit 
of  one's  work,  the  peak  of  recognitions,  honors,  and  earned  income  is 
usually  not  reached  until  the  fifties. 

On  the  basis  of  Lehman's  data  as  well  as  on  the  evidence  from  their 
own  records,  the  peak  of  achievement  for  this  group  is  not  yet  reached. 
More  than  half  were  still  under  age  45  in  1955  and  there  was  little  evi- 
dence of  any  slackening  of  pace.  Whether  the  rise  in  the  next  10  years 
will  be  as  steep  as  that  between  1945  and  1955  is  doubtful,  principally 
for  the  reason  that  they  are  so  much  nearer  the  top.  The  group  has 
made  tremendous  strides  in  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years.  This  is  true 
in  every  field  and  in  every  walk  of  life.  There  is  almost  no  one  who 
has  not  improved  his  status,  even  though  he  may  still  be  well  below 
the  average  of  the  group  in  terms  of  realizing  his  intellectual  potential 
in  his  vocational  accomplishments. 

We  said  some  years  ago,36  that  only  a  professed  seer  would  venture 
a  statistical  forecast  of  the  future  achievements  of  the  group.  However, 
we  did  venture  some  predictions  on  the  basis  of  the  data  to  1945,  among 
which  were  the  following: 


150  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

The  peak  of  recognition  for  achievement  will  come  much  later,  probably 
not  before  another  fifteen  or  twenty  years  have  elapsed.  Listings  in  Ameri- 
can Men  of  Science  may  well  be  doubled  by  1960,  and  listings  in  Who's  Who 
may  be  trebled  or  quadrupled  by  1970.  In  the  decade  1960  to  1970  there 
should  be  several  times  as  many  holding  positions  of  high  responsibility  as 
in  1945,  and  several  times  as  many  of  national  or  international  reputation 
in  their  special  fields  of  accomplishment 

These  were  indeed  conservative  estimates.  Instead  of  the  doubling 
of  listings  in  American  Men  of  Science  which  was  thought  might  take 
place  by  1960,  the  number  has  quadrupled,  with  77  names  (70  men  and 
7  women)  compared  to  the  19  men  and  no  women  to  1945.  The  list 
in  Who's  Who  in  Americans  grown  from  5  names  (all  men)  to  33  (31 
men  and  2  women),  an  increase  of  more  than  six  times  rather  than  the 
trebling  or  quadrupling  cautiously  predicted  for  the  still-distant  1970. 

In  1945  probably  not  more  than  a  half-dozen  had  a  national  repu- 
tation, and  perhaps  one  was  internationally  known.  By  1955  several 
dozen  at  least  have  become  national  figures  and  8  or  10  are  known 
internationally.  Moreover,  the  group  now  includes  three  men  who  have 
been  elected  to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  as  compared  with 
only  one  at  the  earlier  date. 

It  is  hard  to  say  in  which  fields  the  greatest  advances  will  take  place 
in  the  next  five  or  ten  years.  Business  will  certainly  be  one,  and  law 
another.  The  scientists  are  probably  nearer  their  peak  than  are  the  rest 
of  the  group  but  even  here  there  are  a  number  of  younger  scientists 
with  great  promise.  Regardless  of  the  degree  of  productivity  yet  to  be 
attained,  the  number  of  those  winning  special  honors  and  distinctions 
will  increase.  This  is  true  because  of  the  time  lag  between  achievement 
and  recognition.  Although  American  Men  of  Science  listings  are  prob- 
ably now  close  to  their  maximum,  at  least  one  and  possibly  two  scien- 
tists are  so  outstanding  that  eventual  election  to  the  National  Academy 
of  Sciences  can  be  predicted  for  them.  There  will  undoubtedly  be  a 
considerable  increase  in  the  number  of  Who's  Who  biographies  but  we 
hesitate  to  estimate  the  ultimate  number. 

There  are,  however,  a  few  fields,  all  dependent  on  special  talent, 
in  which  there  has  been  a  lack  of  outstanding  accomplishment.  These 
are  the  fine  arts,  music  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  literature.  The  group 
has  produced  no  great  musical  composer*  and  no  great  creative  artist. 

*  An  exception  in  the  case  of  musical  composer  should  be  noted.  This  is  a  man 
of  rare  creative  genius  who  was  not  included  in  the  statistics  of  this  report  because 
his  intelligence  level  was  not  definitely  established  in  childhood.  He  is  several  years 


THE  FULFILLMENT  OF  PROMISE  151 

Several  possessing  superior  talent  in  music  or  art  are  heading  univer- 
sity departments  in  these  fields  and  have  produced  some  excellent  origi- 
nal work,  but  none  seems  likely  to  achieve  a  truly  great  piece  of  creative 
work.  There  are  a  number  of  competent  and  highly  successful  writers 
among  the  subjects  but  not  more  than  three  or  four  with  a  high  order 
of  literary  creativity.  Perhaps  it  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of  the  rela- 
tively small  size  of  our  group,  that  no  great  creative  genius  in  the  arts 
has  appeared,  for  such  genius  is  indeed  rare.  In  any  case  these  are  the 
only  major  fields  in  which  the  achievement  of  our  group  is  limited. 

SOME  COMMENTS  ON  SUCCESS 

Our  discussion  so  far  has  been  concerned  with  achievement  of  emi- 
nence, professional  status,  and  recognized  position  in  the  world  of 
human  affairs.  But  these  are  goals  for  which  many  intelligent  men  and 
women  do  not  consciously  strive.  Greatness  of  achievement  is  relative 
both  to  the  prevailing  patterns  of  culture  and  the  individual's  personal 
philosophy  of  life ;  there  neither  exists  nor  can  be  devised  a  universal 
yardstick  for  its  measure.  The  criterion  of  success  used  in  this  study 
reflects  both  the  present-day  social  ideology  and  an  avowed  bias  in  favor 
of  achievement  that  calls  for  the  use  of  intelligence.  It  is  concerned  with 
vocational  accomplishment  rather  than  with  the  attainment  of  personal 
happiness.  And  the  record  shows  that  the  gifted  subjects,  in  over- 
whelming numbers,  have  fulfilled  the  promise  of  their  youth  in  their 
later  life  achievements. 

There  are  other  criteria  of  success  and  other  goals  and  satisfactions 
in  life,  however,  and  in  the  biographical  data  blank  the  gifted  men  and 
women  have  expressed  their  own  opinions  on  what  constitutes  life  suc- 
cess. The  final  question  in  the  blank  was  worded  as  follows :  From  your 
point  of  mew,  what  constitutes  success  in  lijef  There  was  a  wide  range 
of  replies,  often  overlapping,  and  frequently  a  respondent  gave  more 
than  one  definition.  The  definitions  most  frequently  given  fall  into  five 


older  than  anyone  included  in  the  group,  and  when  he  was  a  child  no  satisfactory 
IQ  test  had  been  devised.  However,  the  senior  author  has  followed  his  develop- 
ment since  1910,  when  he  was  13  years  old,  and  has  known  him  about  as  intimately 
as  any  gifted  subject  tinder  observation.  He  is  an  eminent  musician  who  has  pro- 
duced hundreds  of  musical  compositions,  authored  two  books  and  scores  of  arti- 
cles on  musical  theory ;  invented  new  musical  techniques,  given  recitals  throughout 
the  United  States  and  Europe ;  lectured  in  leading  American  universities ;  founded 
and  edited  a  musical  magazine,  and^won  recognition  as  an  authority  on  musicology 
and  primitive  music.  His  compositions  cover  a  wide  range  with  respect  to  type, 
theme,  and  technique.  Many  of  his  productions  have  been  recorded ;  several  of  his 
orchestral  selections  are  played  by  leading  conductors ;  ^  and^  some  of  his  briefer 
compositions  are  famous  among  musicians  because  of  their 


152  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

categories,  each  noted  by  from  around  40  to  50  percent  of  the  group 
(with  the  exception  of  category  c} .  None  of  the  other  definitions  of  suc- 
cess was  mentioned  by  more  than  15  percent,  and  only  two  by  more  than 
10  percent  of  the  subjects.  The  five  most  frequently  mentioned  defi- 
nitions of  life  success  are  : 

a.  Realization  of  goals,  vocational  satisfaction,  a  sense  of  achieve- 
ment; 

b.  A  happy  marriage  and  home  life,  bringing  up  a  family  satis- 
factorily ; 

c.  Adequate  income  for  comfortable  living  (but  this  was  men- 
tioned by  only  20  percent  of  women)  ; 

d.  Contributing  to  knowledge  or  welfare  of  mankind;  helping 
others,  leaving  the  world  a  better  place ; 

e.  Peace  of  mind,   well-adjusted  personality,  adaptability,  emo- 
tional maturity. 

We  would  agree  with  the  subjects  that  vocational  achievement  is  not 
the  only — perhaps  not  even  the  most  important — aspect  of  life  success. 
To  many,  the  most  important  achievement  in  life  is  happiness,  content- 
ment, emotional  maturity,  integrity.  Even  failure  to  rise  above  the 
lowest  rungs  of  the  occupational  ladder  does  not  necessarily  mean  that 
success  in  the  truest  sense  has  been  trivial.  There  may  have  been  heroic 
sacrifices,  uncommon  judgment  in  handling  the  little  things  of  daily 
life,  countless  acts  of  kindness,  loyal  friendships  won,  and  conscientious 
discharge  of  social  and  civic  responsibilities.  If  we  sometimes  get  dis- 
couraged at  the  rate  society  progresses,  we  might  take  comfort  in  the 
thought  that  some  of  the  small  jobs,  as  well  as  the  larger  ones,  are  being 
done  by  gifted  people. 


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2.  BAYLEY,  NANCY,  and  ODEN,  MELITA  H.  "The  Maintenance  of  Intel- 

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3.  BURKS,  BARBARA  S.,  JENSEN,  DORTHA  W.,  and  TERMAN,  L.  M.  Genetic 

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6.  CATTELL,  JACQUES  (editor).   Directory  of  American  Scholars.    New 

York:  R.  R.  Bowker  Company  (1957).  836  pages. 

7.  Ciocco,  ANTONIO.    "Sex  Differences  in  Morbidity  and  Mortality." 

Quarterly  Review  of  Biology  (1940),  15,  59-73;  192-210. 

8.  Cox,  CATHARINE  M.  Genetic  Studies  of  Genius,  II.  The  Early  Mental 

Traits  of  Three  Hundred  Geniuses.  Stanford  University :  Stanford 
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9.  DAVIS,  KINGSLEY.  "Divorce."  Ch.  4,  Part  V,  in  Fishbein,  Morris,  and 

Burgess,  E.  W.,  Successful  Marriage.  Garden  City,  New  York: 
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10.  DUBLIN,  L.  I.   Facts  of  Life.   New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company 

(1951).    461  pages. 

11.  DUBLIN,  L.  I.,  and  BUNZEL,  B.  To  Be  Or  Not  To  Be.  New  York:  Har- 

rison Smith  and  Robert  Haas  (1933).  443  pages. 

12.  DUBLIN,  L.  I.,  and  LOTKA,  A.  J.  Length  of  Life.  New  York :  The  Ron- 

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13.  DUBLIN,  L.  I.,  LOTKA,  A.  J.,  and  SPIEGELMAN,  MORTIMER.  Length  of 

Life.  New  York:  The  Ronald  Press  Company  (1949).  379  pages. 

14.  DuBois,  CORNELIUS,  and  MURPHY,  J.  V.  Life  and  Opinions  of  a  Col- 

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15.  GOLDHAMER,  H.,  and  MARSHALL,  A.  Psychosis  and  Civilisation.  Glen- 

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16.  GOODENOUGH,  FLORENCE  L.,  and  ANDERSON,  J.  E.  Experimental  Child 

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153 


154  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

17.  HAVEMANN,  ERNEST,  and  WEST,  PATRICIA  SALTER.  They  Went  to  Col- 

lege. New  York:  Harcourt,  Brace  and  Company  (1952).  227  pages. 

18.  HENRY,  A.  F.,  and  SHORT,  J.  F.,  JR.  Suicide  and  Homicide.  Glencoe, 

Illinois :  The  Free  Press  (1954).  214  pages. 

19.  HIRNING,  J.  L.,  and  HIRNING,  ALMA  L,  Marriage  Adjustment.  New 

York:  American  Book  Company  (1956).  456  pages. 

20.  JELLINEK,  E.  M.,  and  KELLER,  MARK.   "Rates  of  Alcoholism  in  the 

United  States  of  America,  1940^-1948."  Quarterly  Journal  of  Studies 
on  Alcohol  (1952),  13,  49-59. 

21.  KINSEY,  A.  C,  POMEROY,  W.  B.,  and  MARTIN,  C.  E.  Sexual  Behavior 

in  the  Human  Male.  Philadelphia :  W.  B.  Saunders  Company  (1948) . 
804  pages. 

22.  KINSEY,  A.  C.,  POMEROY,  W.  B.,  MARTIN,  C.  E.,  and  GEBHARD,  P.  H. 

Sexual  Behavior  in  the  Human  Female.  Philadelphia :  W.  B.  Saun- 
ders Company  (1953).  842  pages. 

23.  LANDIS,  CARNEY,  and  PAGE,  J.  D,  Modern  Society  and  Mental  Disease. 

New  York:  Farrar  and  Rinehart  (1938).  190  pages. 

24.  LANGE-EICHBAUM,  WILHELM.  The  Problem  of  Genius.  New  York: 

The  Macmillan  Company  (1932).  187  pages. 

25.  LEHMAN,  H.  C.  Age  and  Achievement.  Pub.  for  American  Philosophi- 

cal Society  by  Princeton  University  Press  (1953).  359  pages. 

26.  MALZBERG,  BENJAMIN.  "The  Expectation  of  Mental  Disease  in  New 

York  State,  1920,  1930,  and  1940,"  in  American  Psychopathological 
Association,  Trends  of  Mental  Disease.  New  York :  King's  Crown 
Press  (1945),  42-55. 

27.  McNEMAR,  QXJINN,  and  TERMAN,  L.  M.   "Sex  Differences  in  Varia- 

tional  Tendency/'  Genetic  Psychology  Monographs  (1936),  18,  66 
pages. 

28.  MERRILL,  MAUD  A.  "The  Significance  of  IQ's  on  the  Revised  Stanf  ord- 

Binet  Scales."  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology  (1938),  29, 641-51. 

29.  RAUBENHEIMER,  A.  S.   "An  Experimental  Study  of  Some  Behavior 

Traits  of  the  Potentially  Delinquent  Boy."  Psychological  Mono- 
graphs (1925),  34,  No.  159.  107  pages. 

30.  SEMELMAN,  BARBARA  BLUM.  A  Study  of  Suicide  in  San  Francisco} 

1943-45.  Unpublished  master's  thesis,  Stanford  University,  1948. 

31.  STRONG,  E.  K.  Vocational  Interests  of  Men  and  Women.  Stanford  Uni- 

versity:  Stanford  University  Press  (1943).  746  pages. 

32.  SWARD,  KEITH.  "Age  and  Mental  Ability  in  Superior  Men."  American 

Journal  of  Psychology  (1945),  58,  443-79. 

33.  TERMAN,  L.  M.    "Are  Scientists  Different?"    Scientific  American 

(1955),  192,  25-29. 

34.  TERMAN,  L.  M.  "Genius  and  Stupidity;  a  Study  of  Some  of  the  Intel- 

lectual Processes  of  Seven  'Bright'  and  Seven  'Stupid'  Boys."  Peda- 
gogical Seminary  (1906),  13,  307-73. 


REFERENCES  CITED  155 

35.  TERMAN,  L.  M.  "Scientists  and  Nonscientists  in  a  Group  of  800  Gifted 

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36.  TERMAN,  L.  M.,  and  ODEN,  MELJTA  H.   Genetic  Studies  of  Genius,  IV. 

The  Gifted  Child  Grows  Up.  Stanford  University :  Stanford  Univer- 
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38.  TERMAN,  L.  M.,  and  WALLIN,  PAUL.   "The  Validity  of  Marriage  Pre- 

diction and  Marital  Adjustment  Tests."   American  Sociological  Re- 
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39.  TERMAN,  L.  M.,  et  aL  Genetic  Studies  of  Genius,  I.  Mental  and  Physical 

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APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

INFORMATION  SCHEDULES  OF  1950-52  AND  1955 

The  information  blanks  used  in  the  1950—52  field  follow-up  and  in 
the  1955  survey  by  mail  were  S*/2  by  1 1  inches  in  size.  They  are  repro- 
duced here  in  small  type.  The  list  that  follows  includes  all  the  blanks 
used  at  these  dates  except  two :  ( 1 )  a  4-page  blank  titled  Information 
About  Child  which  called  for  developmental  data  on  those  offspring 
of  the  gifted  subjects  who  had  been  given  a  Stanford-Bmet  test;  and 
(2)  the  Concept  Mastery  test. 

Blanks  reproduced: 

General  Information  (1950) 
Supplementary  Biographical  Data 
Data  on  Rate  of  Reproduction 
The  Happiness  of  Your  Marriage 
Report  of  Field  Worker 
Information  Blank  (1955) 


160 


THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


Gifted  Children  Follow-Up 
Stanford  University  1950 


Date  of  filling  out  this  blank.... 

GENERAL  INFORMATION 


Full  name Birthdate Age 

(Married  women  include  maiden  name) 

Address Telephone 

Name  and  address  of  relative  or  friend  through  whom  you  could  be  reached  if  your  address  should  change 

1.  Education:  Circle  highest  grade  completed.  High  school  1234    College  1234    Postgraduate  1234 

Since  1940 :  College  degrees Date(s) College  attended 

Special  courses  taken  (extension,  business,  technical,  professional,  etc.) 

2.  Occupation  and  earned  income  (for  income  report  annual  salary  before  income  tax  deductions).  If  self-employed  (doc- 
tor, lawyer,  business  owner,  etc.)  give  equivalent  of  salary,  i.e.,  income  less  operating  expenses. 

Year  Profession,  job,  or  position  Exact  nature  of  work  ^M^v^""6 

1946. 
1947  . 
1948. 
1949  . 
Approximate  current  income  from  other  sources  (investments,  trust  funds,  other  assets) 

3.  Marital  status  (check)  single ;  married ;  widowed ;  separated ;  divorced 

Date  of  marriage Your  age  at  marriage:  Years Months 

If  this  or  a  previous  marriage  ended  in  divorce,  give  date(s)  

4.  About  your  spouse:  Name  (maiden  name  of  wife) Age  of  spouse  at 

marriage:  Years Months Highest  grade  or  college  year  of  spouse's  schooling 

Diplomas  or  degrees  received What  school  or  college? 

Present  occupation Present  annual  earned  income 

His  (her)  avocational  interests  or  hobbies 

Occupation  of  his  (her)  father His  (her)  mother 

Other  information  regarding  husband  (wife)  that  you  think  .would  be  of  interest _ 

5.  Offspring: 

S«  Dtt«  of  birth  f££?  ll^VA^tl'  Cause  of  death 


APPENDIX:  GENERAL  INFORMATION  (1950)      161 

6.  Your  general  health  since  1945  : 

a)  Physical  condition  has  been:  (check)  Very  good ;  good ;  fair ;  poor ;  very  poor 

b)  Illnesses,  accidents,  or  surgical  operations  in  recent  years  


Aftereffects  

c)  Has  there  been  any  tendency  toward  nervousness,  worry,  special  anxieties,  or  nervous  breakdown Date 

and  nature  of  such  difficulties 


How  handled  (psychiatric,  psychoanalytic,  or  medical  help,  hospitalization,  etc.)  Give  details  ..... 
Present  condition  (free  from  difficulty,  improved,  no  change,  worse,  etc.)  


d)  Use  of  liquor  (check  the  statement  below  that  most  nearly  describes  you) 

I  never  take  a  drink,  or  only  I  am  a  fairly  heavy  drinker ;  I  drink  to  excess  rather  frequently 

on  rare  occasions.  but  do  not  feel  that  it  has  interfered  seriously  with  my  work 

or  relationships  with  others. 

I  am  a  moderate  drinker.  I 

have  seldom  or  never  been  -Alcohol  is  a  serious  problem.  I  am  frequently  drunk  and  at- 

intoxicated.  tempts  to  stop  drinking  have  been  unsuccessful 


If  alcohol  has  been  a  serious  problem,  what  steps  have  been  taken  ? 


7.  Have  you  ever  been  arrested?  (Do  not  include  minor  traffic  violations) If  so,  give  facts  regarding  each 

instance,  including  date,  charge  made,  and  disposition  o£  case 

8.  List  any  members  of  your  family  (parents,  grandparents,  brothers,  sisters)  who  have  died  since  1940. 


Date  of  death     1      Age  at  death      1  Caase  of  death 


T 


9.  (a)  Occupation  of  father,  if  living Special  accomplishments,  activities,  honors, 

or  misfortunes  of  father  in  last  few  years - - 

(b)  Occupation  of  mother,  if  living Special  accomplishments,  activities,  honors, 

or  misfortunes  of  mother  in  last  few  years 


162 


THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


10.  Your  brothers  and  sisters.  Mark  with  cross  (X)  any  half  brothers  or  sisters.  If  deceased,  mark  D  after  name  and  give 
age  at  death. 


Age          Amount  of  education 


Yes  or  no 


Marrl<d        No  of  ch.ldren 


Living    Deceased 


""" '" I 

Have  any  brothers  or  sisters  been  divorced? If  so,  which  (indicate  if  divorced  more  than  once) 

Special  accomplishments,  activities,  honors,  or  misfortunes  of  brothers  or  sisters  in  recent  years 

11.  (a)  List  your  avocational  interests  or  hobbies  of  recent  years  (e.g.,  sports,  music,  art,  writing,  collections,  gardening, 
woodwork,  etc.)  Underline  each  activity  once  to  show  moderate  interest,  twice  to  show  very  great  interest. 

Special  instruction  in  any  of  above  interests  (amount  and  kind)  

(b)  What  kind  of  reading  do  you  prefer?  (fiction,  biography,  poetry,  etc.) 

Give  illustrations  from  your  reading  of  the  last  year 

What  magazines  do  you  read  fairly  regularly? 

12.  How  regularly  do  you  vote?  (check  for  each  kind  of  election) 

National  election:  Always Usually Occasionally Rarely Never 

State  election:       Always Usually Occasionally Rarely Never 

Local  election :      Always Usually Occasionally Rarely Never 

13.  On  national  issues  which  of  the  political  parties  most  nearly  represents  your  leanings  ?  (check)  Democrat Repub- 
lican  Socialist Communist Other  (specify) 

Have  you  held  political  office?  (specify) 

Other  political  activities 

14.  Rate  yourself  on  the  following  scale  as  regards  your  political  and  economic  viewpoint  (Indicate  by  cross  (X)  on  the 
line) 


Extremely 
radical 


Tend  to  be 
radical 


Average 


Tend  to  be 
conservative 


Extremely 
conservative 


APPENDIX:  GENERAL  INFORMATION  (1950)  163 

IS.  List  memberships  in  clubs  or  organizations  and  offices  held  (e.g.,  labor  unions,  business  or  professional  organizations, 
social  clubs,  service  organizations,  etc.) 


16.  Record  of  your  service  activities  (such  as  scout  work,  welfare,  religious  or  church  work,  participation  in  community 
and  civic  affairs,  P.T.A.,  etc)  Please  do  not  be  modest— include  offices  held,  etc 


17.  Any  special  honors,  citations,  awards,  election  to  honor  societies,  "Who's  Who"  listings,  etc?  (specify)  . 


18.  List  your  publications  since  1940,  if  any.  Give  title,  date,  publisher,  and  type  of  materials  (e.g.,  poem,  short  story,  mu- 
sical composition,  plays,  scientific  or  critical  articles,  etc.)  If  space  is  insufficient,  attach  further  sheets  listing  such  pub- 
lications.  ~ „ 


19.  List  other  creative  work  accomplished  (e.g.,  architectural,  engineering,  inventive,  scientific,  artistic,  dramatic) .  Note 
any  special  recognition - 


20.  Give  any  other  significant  information  regarding  yourself  or  your  family  which  has  not  been  covered  in  this  question- 
naire, e.g.  (a)  marriage  of  children  and  birth  of  grandchildren ;  (b)  any  special  good  fortune,  accomplishments,  or 
change  of  status ;  (c)  any  misfortunes  or  disappointments  that  have  seriously  affected  your  life,  etc.  (If  space  is  inade- 
quate, answer  on  additional  sheet). 


164  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


Gifted  Children  Follow-Up 
Stanford  University,  1950-51 


Date  of  filling  blank Age 

(Name  to  be  cut  out  on  this  lia«) 


Name .. 


(Married  women  include  maiden  name) 


Code  number... 


SUPPLEMENTARY  BIOGRAPHICAL  DATA 

Directions.  The  purpose  of  this  questionnaire  is  to  obtain  certain  kinds  of  biographical  information  that  will  throw  light 
on  your  personality  development  and  on  the  factors  that  may  have  helped  or  hindered  you  in  achieving  your  life  goals.  The 
information  called  for  is  intended  to  supplement,  clarify,  and  perhaps,  in  some  cases,  correct  the  information  I  have  collected 
from  all  sources  over  the  many  years  I  have  known  you.  Your  point  of  view  regarding  certain  aspects  of  your  early  life  on 
which  your  parents  and  teachers  have  reported  should  be  of  special  value. 

Such  information  as  you  are  willing  to  give  me  is,  of  course,  for  my  confidential  records.  As  soon  as  the  blank  has 
reached  me  your  name  at  the  top  of  this  page  will  be  cut  out  and  a  code  number  will  be  substituted  for  it  so  that  no  assist- 
ant who  tabulates  the  data  for  statistical  treatment  will  know  the  identity  of  any  respondent. 

Experience  has  shown  that  most  persons  can  fill  out  the  blank  in  an  hour  or  less.  If  the  time  allowed  does  not  permit 
you  to  finish,  you  will  be  given  an  extra  blank  to  take  home  with  you  which  you  can  return  to  rne  by  mail  with  whatever 
additions  or  amplifications  you  wish  to  make. 

LEWIS  M.  TESMAN 


1.  Following  are  several  aspects  of  parent-child  relationships.  Each  trait  or  attitude  is  represented  by  a  straight  line,  the 
two  ends  of  the  line  being  the  extremes.  Place  a  cross  (x)  on  the  line  where  you  think  it  should  go  to  describe  your  re- 
lationships with  your  parents  correctly.  The  cross  does  not  have  to  be  placed  at  the  small  vertical  bars ;  put  it  where- 
ever  you  think  it  should  go. 

Try  to  view  your  childhood  and  youth  objectively.  It  should  be  remembered  that  frequently  either  end  of  the  scale 
might  be  considered  favorable  from  an  independent  observer's  standpoint ;  hence  the  objective  rating  should  be  shown 
even  though  such  a  rating  might  not  seem  complimentary  from  your  point  of  view. 

a)  To  what  extent  did  you  admire  and  want  to  emulate  your  parents  ? 

FATHER  MOTHER 


-I- 


Slightly 


Extremely     A  good  deal      Moderately           Slightly  Not  at  all  Extremely      A  Rood  deal      Moderately 

&)  To  what  extent  did  you  feel  rebellious  toward  your  parents? 


A  good  d 


Extremely      A  good  deal      Moderately  Slightly  Not  at  all  Extremely     A  good  deal      Moderately  Slightly 

c)  To  what  extent  did  your  parents  encourage  your  efforts  toward  initiative  and  independence? 

FATHER  MOTHER 

Extremely      A  good  deal      Moderately  Slightly  Not  at  all  Extremely     A  good  deal      Moderately           Slightly 

d)  To  what  extent  did  your  parents  resist  your  efforts  to  achieve  normal  independence  from  them? 


Extremely      A  good  deal      Moderately  Slightly  Not  at  all  Extremely      A  good  deal      Moderately 


Slightly 


APPENDIX:  SUPPLEMENTARY  BIOGRAPHICAL  DATA  165 

e)  To  what  extent  did  you  feel  rejected  or  that  your  parents'  feeling  toward  you  was  unsympathetic? 

FATHER  MOTHER 

Extremely       A  Eood  deal       Moderately  Sl.ghtly  Not  at  all  Extremely       A  good  deal       Moderately  SHKhtIy  Not  at  all 

/)  To  what  extent  was  there  a  feeling  of  deep  affection  and  understanding  between  you  and  your  parents  ? 

FATHER  MOTHER 

Extremely      A  Rood  deal       Moderately  Slightly  Not  at  all  Extremely      A  good  deal       Moderately  Slmhtly  Not  at  all 

g)  How  solicitous  were  your  parents  about  you ;  that  is,  inclined  to  "anxious"  affection,  overprotection,  and  planning 
for  you  ? 

FATHER  MOTHER 


Extremely       A  cood  deal       Moderately  Slightly  Not  at  all  Extremely       A  sood  deal       Moderately  Slightly  Not  at  all 

2.  To  show  what  your  parents  were  like  in  their  life  as  a  whole,  entirety  apart  from  their  relationships  toward  you  or 
their  other  children,  please  rate  them  on  the  following  traits : 

o)  How  self-confident? 

FATHER  MOTHER 


Extremely         More  than         Avc 
average 

b)  How  helpful? 

FATHER 


Extremely        More  than        A\erajse          Less"  than        MarfcedK      Extreme!}        More  than         Average       Less  than          Markedly 
average  lacking  average  average  lacking 


-I h 


c)  How  domineering? 

FATHER 


Extremely        More  than        Average          Less  than        Markedly     Extremely       More  than         Average       Leas  than          Markedly 
average  average  lacking  average  average  lacking; 

d)  How  friendly? 

FATHER  MOTHER 

Markedly 


ncly       More  than         Ave 


e )  How  intelligent  ? 

FATHER 


3.  As  an  adult,  do  you  find  yourself  becoming  more  like  your  father  or  mother  than  you  were  in  adolescence  ?  (check) 
Father Mother In  what  ways  do  you  seem  to  be  changing  toward  or  away  from  your  parents'  person- 
alities or  attitudes? - 

4.  Additional  comments  regarding  your  parents  or  your  relationships  with  them 


166  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

5.  Relationships  within  family : 

a)  Was  there  either  unusually  close  attachment  or  marked  rivalry  or  jealousy  between  you  and  any  of  your  brothers 
or  sisters?  (check)  Attachment ;  Rivalry.... ;  If  present,  between  whom? 

Effect  on  you... - 


Was  there  marked  friction  ktween  any  of  the  members  of  your  family  ? If  so,  which? 

Effect  on  you 


6.  Socio-economic  factors : 

a)  During  your  childhood  and  youth  was  there  much  financial  difficulty  in  your  home?  Finances  were:  (check)  Very 
limited ;  Limited ;  Adequate ;  Abundant 

b)  As  regards  social  position,  how  did  your  parents  compare  with  the  parents  of  your  schoolmates  ?  (check)  Much 

above  average ;  Somewhat  above  average ;  About  average ;  Somewhat  below  average ; 

Much  below  average 

c)  In  your  elementary  and  high-school  days  how  successful  vocationally  did  you  consider  your  father?  (check)  Out- 
standing.  ;  More  successful  than  average ;  About  average ;  Less  successful  than  average ; 

Quite  unsuccessful 

d)  Comments: - 


7.  Other  influences; 

o)  What  persons  other  than  your  immediate  family  have  markedly  influenced  your  personality  and  development? 

Give  age  at  time  and  describe.,.. - . 


Has  any  book  or  philosophy  had  a  profound  influence  on  you?  Give  age  at  time  and  describe 


8.  Your  attitude  toward  religion : 

a)  Religious  training  in  childhood  and  youth :  (check)  Very  strict ;  Considerable ;  Little ;  None 

b)  As  an  adult,  to  what  extent  are  you  religiously  inclined?  (check)  Strongly ;  Moderately ;  Little 

c )  What  is  your  religious  affiliation,  if  any _ 

d)  Comments;  

9.  Physical  factors: 

o)  Characterize  the  general  level  of  your  health  during  the  earlier  periods  of  your  life  as  follows :  (check) 

Childhood:  Very  good Good— Fair. Poor Very  poor..... 

Adolescence;  Very  good..... Good Fair Poor Very  poor . 

b)  Did  such  factors  as  physical  size,  appearance,  strength,  agility,  or  physical  handicap  affect  your  personality,  and 
if  so,  in  what  way?~ ..... .. . 


APPENDIX  :   SUPPLEMENTARY  BIOGRAPHICAL  DATA             167 
c)  What  important  illnesses  or  accidents  have  influenced  your  personality  or  attitudes?  Explain 


d)  How  would  you  rate  yourself  as  to  amount  of  physical  energy  in  recent  years?  (check)  Extremely  energetic. 

More  energetic  and  active  than  average ;  Average ;  Less  energetic  and  active  than  average.. . 

Markedly  lacking  in  energy,  fatigue  very  easily 

e}  Comments:  


10.  Emotional  and  social  factors: 

a)  As  compared  to  your  friends,  to  what  extent  were  you  interested  in  succeeding  at  the  following?  (Indicate  by  a 
cross  [x]  on  the  line.) 


)  Competitive  sports 

Before 
[                | 

aRe!2 

III                      1 

Age  12-20 
| 

i              i 

Since  age  20 

i          i 

je-         A  (rood       Moder-      Slightly       Not  at              Ex-         A  giwd      Moder-      Slightly 
mely       deal          alely                          all                tremely       deal          ately 

Not'  at               Ex-         Agoud      Moder-      Shu 
alt                treraely       <iea!          ately 

htly      Not  at 
all 

')  Being  a  leader 

Before 

age  12 
1                              1 

Age  12-20 

I 

I                    ! 

Since  age  20 
i               i 

i 

x-        A  good     Moder-     Slightly      Not  at              Ex-        A  good     Moder-     Slightly 
mely       deal        ately                         all               temely       deal         ately 

Not  at              Ex-        A  good      Moder-      Sins' 
all               tremely       deal         ateiy 

tly      Not  at 
all 

)  Having  friends 

Before 

age  12 

1                     1 

Age  12-20 

!               ! 

, 

Since  age  20 

1                f 

t 

x.         A  good     Mfider-     Slightly      Not  at              E»        A  Rood     Moder-     Slickly 
mely       deal         ately                          all              tremely       deal         ately 

Not  at              Ex-        A  good      Moder-      Slightly      Not  at 
all               tremely       deal          ately                          all 

)  Making  money 

Before  age  12 

1               1         !               [ 

Age  12-20 

! 

Since  age  20 
f                ! 

1 

x-        A  good     Moder-      Slightly      Not  at              Ex-        A  good      Moder-     Slightly 
mely       deal         ately                           all               tremely       deal          ately 

Not  at               Ex-         A  good      Moder-      Slightly      Not  at 
a!                tremely       deal          ately                           all 

)  Being  a  social  success 

Before  asc  12 
I               I               1               j                     j  __  ...... 

Affe  12-20 

!                1 

j                    j 

Since  age  20 

!               1 

f 

x-        A  good     Moder-      Slightly      Not  at             Ex-        A  good      Moder.     Slsgh'tly 
mely       deal         ately                         all              tremeiy       deal         ately 

Not  'at              Ex-        A  good      Moder-      Slightly      Not  at 
all               tremely       deal         ately                         all 

)  School  work 

Before 

I 

age  12 
I               I 

Age  12-20 
1                1 

| 

Sine*  age  20 

1                ! 

I 

x-         Aeuod     Moder-      Slightly      Not  at               Ex-         A  good      Moder-      Slightly 
roely       deal         ately                           all               tremely       deal          ately 

Nut  at               Ex-         A  good      Moder-      Sligh 
all                tremely       deal          ately 

tly      Not  at 
all 

)  Did  you  as  a 
way  did  you 
Effect  on  you 

child  or  later  feel  that  you  were  ' 
fed  different^ 

different"  from  your  classmates  or  associates  ?  If  so,  in  what 

c)  In  your  childhood  or  adolescence  how  easy  or  difficult  was  it  for  you  to  enter  into  the  social  and  other  activities 

of  your  classmates?  (check)  Had  difficulty  in  making  friends  and  being  accepted ;  Average  in  this  respect 

;  Very  adept  socially 

Comments: 


168  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

d }  Describe  any  circumstances,  personal  influences,  or  events  that  contributed  to  your  social  adjustment  or  lack  of  social 
adjustment  in  childhood  and  youth 


e)  Either  in  childhood  or  later,  have  there  been  any  major  problems  or  marked  difficulties  related  to  sex? 

Give  age  at  time  and  nature  of  difficulty 


11.  Education: 

c)  Did  your  parents  encourage  you  to  forge  ahead  in  school,  were  you  allowed  to  go  your  own  pace,  or  were  you  held 
back?  (underline) 

&)  What  was  the  attitude  of  your  parents  toward  your  schoolwork?  (check)  Demanded  high  marks ;  En- 
couraged them ;  Took  them  for  granted ,  Showed  little  concern ;  Were  not  interested 

Comments :  , 


f)  Did  your  parents  encourage  you  to  go  to  college? Explain: 

d)  Did  you  have  as  much  schooling  as  you  wanted? If  not,  explain... 

e)  Comments:  


12.  Vocation: 

o)  What  vocation  did  your  parents  think  you  should  plan  for? ,. 


b)  At  about  what  age  did  you  start  thinking  seriously  about  your  lifework  and  what  vocation(s)  appealed  to  you 
most  at  that  time? ., 


c )  Was  there  any  conflict  with  your  parents  regarding  your  choice  of  career  ?  Were  you  greatly  influenced  by  their 
desires  in  your  choice  ?  Give  details 


d)  Other  circumstances  that  influenced  your  final  choice...., 


e)  Which  of  the  following  best  describes  your  feeling  about  your  present  vocation?  (check)  Deep  satisfaction  and  in- 
terest  ;  Fairly  content ;  No  serious  discontent,  but  do  not  find  it  particularly  interesting  or  satis- 
fying  ;  Discontented  but  will  probably  stick  it  out ;  Strongly  dislike  and  hope  to  change 


APPENDIX  I   SUPPLEMENTARY  BIOGRAPHICAL  DATA              169 
/)  If  dissatisfied  with  your  vocation,  what  vocation  or  vocations  do  you  think  would  have  suited  you  better? 

g)  Comments:  


13.  Overview: 

a)  On  the  whole,  how  well  do  you  think  you  have  lived  up  to  your  intellectual  abilities13  (Don't  limit  your  answer  to 
economic  or  vocational  success  only.) 

(Check)  Fully ;  Reasonably  well ;  Considerably  short  of  it ;  Far  short  of  it ;  Consider  my 

life  largely  a  failure ;  A  total  failure 

&)  Does  your  life  offer  satisfactory  outlets  for  your  mental  capabilities? If  not,  explain 

c)  Factors  which  have  contributed  to  your  life  accomplishment  to  date :  (Check  once  all  of  the  following  that  have  had 
a  definitely  helpful  effect;  double-check  those  that  have  been  most  helpful) 

(1)  Superior  mental  ability ;  (2)  Adequate  education ;  (3)  Good  social  adjustment ;  (4)  Good 

personality ;  (5)  Good  mental  stability ;  (6)  Persistence  in  working  toward  a  goal ;  (7)  Good  habits 

of  work ;  (8)  Excellent  health ;  (9)  Lucky  "chance"  factors  (specify) ; 


(10)  Helpful  factors  related  to  other  people  (e.g.,  spouse,  children,  friends,  employer,  etc.).  Explain 

(11)  Comments: 

d)  Factors  which  have  hindered  life  accomplishment  to  date :  (check  once  each  thing  that  has  had  a  definitely  hinder- 
ing effect;  double-check  those  that  have  hindered  most). 

(1)  Inadequate  mental  ability ;  (2)  Inadequate  education ;  (3)  Poor  social  adjustment ;  (4)  Pooi 

personality ;  (5)  Mental  instability ;  (6)  Lack  of  persistence  in  working  toward  a  goal ;  (7)  Poor 

work  habits ;  (8)  Poor  health, ;  (9)  Unlucky  "chance"  factors  (specify) ™ , 

(10)  Hindering  factors  related  to  other  people  (e.g.,  spouse,  children,  friends,  employer,  etc.).  Explain 


(11)  Comments:  , 


e)  From  what  aspects  of  your  life  do  you  derive  the  greatest  satisfaction?  (Check  once  those  you  regard  as  important, 
double-check  those  most  important.) 

Your  work  itself ;  Recognition  for  your  accomplishments ;  Your  income ;  Your  avocational  activities 

or  hobbies ;  Your  marriage ;  Your  children...,-. ;  Religion ;  Social  contacts ;  Community  service 

activities. ;  Other • « 

/)  From  your  point  of  view,  what  constitutes  "success"  in  life? 


170 


THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


14.  Self-ratings  on  personality  traits : 

Instructions:  Please  rate  yourself  on  all  of  the  following  traits.  For  each  trait  place  a  cross  (x)  on  the  line  at  the 
place  you  think  it  should  go  to  describe  you  correctly  as  an  adult. 

Try  to  view  yourself  objectively.  Don't  hesitate  to  rate  yourself  toward  the  extreme  if  that  is  where  you  belong. 
The  extremes  do  not  necessarily  represent  clear-cut  faults  or  virtues.  Try  not  to  think  of  the  traits  in  terms  of 
"good"  or  "bad." 

o)  How  happy  is  your  temperament 


I  have  an                                 Have  a  more                                                                             Usually  less  happy 
extraordinarily                          happy  disposition                                                                        than  others  would  be 
happy  and  joyous                         than  the  average                                 Average                                    m  the  same 
temperament    /'                             person                                     m  this  respect                                circumstances 

Am  strongly  inclined 
to  look  01  tV 
dark  side  of  things 
and  to  be  unhappy  or 
discontented 

v  •'               \  / 

&)  Are  you  moody?              A 

V 

My  moods  are 

decidedly  changeable; 

I  don't  have  moods.                                                                                   ,                                             ,,          . 
I  always  feel  about                          My  moods  are                              .    Average                                 My  moods  are 
the  same                             relatively  permanent                          m  this  respect                           rather  cnangeawe 

alternate  between 

extreme  sadness,, 

' 

,,,,"'     A 

\ 

c]  How  impulsive  are  you  ? 

yr    ' 

,-   *v> 

Rather  imoulsiv;: 

Am  trShfnf  WS:                    Am  more  deliberate                                                                          UlSSriSffiS? 
wttbortcmudenagit                     wd  IKS  impulsive                            ,   Avenge                              because  of  «npul«ve 
from  every  angle                          than  the  average                             in  this  respect                                    action 

|                                                                                                                                                                                  r-|  

Extremely  impulsive, 
alw.ijs  ruining  headlong 
into  thinRs 

1  

V\ 

\J 

d)  How  self-confident  are  you? 

1 

Extremely  self-confident;                                                                                                                    ,         .,      ,,    . 
thtnRs  that  would  cause                        Nearly  always                                                                                Less  self-confident 
tension  and  anxiety                       confident  of  myself.                                                                            *>»«  the  aver  aw; 
in  most  people                            more  so  than  the                             ,    Average                                  am  inclined  to 
never  worry  me                            average  person                              '"  this  respect                              borrow,  trouble 
I                                                                                                               .  

Extremely  lacking 
in  self-confidence; 
suffer  Rreatly  from 
anxiety  and 
apprehension- 
.__    |  - 

\s 

X 

Y/ 

e)  How  emotional  are  you? 

Am  extremely  Hnemotional,                       I  tend  to  be 
even  in  situation-!  which                       unresponsive  to 
arouse  strong  emotions                         situations  of  an                                  Aver 
in  others                                 emotional  nature                              in  this  r 

Have  a  tendency  to 
age                              become  over-emotional 
espcct                                on  occasion 

Am  over-emotional 

to  an  extreme 
degree 

1               '            X  .  ,      -^ 

/)  To  what  extent  do  you  conform  to  authority  and  the  conventions? 

No  tendency  whatever 
to  resent  or  criticize 
or  in  the  form  of                            Less  resentfnl                                  Average                              Am  more  rebellious 
conventions                             than  the  averaKe                             in  this  respect                            than  the  averaBe 
I                                                                                                 I                              __  1  

Am  inclined  to  be 
extremely  antagonistic 
toward  authority  and 

1  -                             1  ••                           H^ 
V"                              ^ 
g)  In  general,  how  easy  are  you  to  get  on  with? 

V 

Extremely  good  natured, 
alw^ld  SeW                    Am  easier  to  *  on  with                                                                   Am  harde:  ;  ta  ,  gel  :  on  with 
kind  of  quarrel  or                         than  the  average                                Average                                than  the  average 
altercation                                     person                                   in  this  respect                                   person 

i                                              _    .       .                             ...-'..,.    ,_                            |-  _  _.  

Am  rather  inclined  to  be 
irritable,  quarrelsome,  or 
resentful  at  slight 
provocation^—  N 

h)  How  much  do  you  enjoy  Social  contacts?             '                               ¥ 

V," 

Am  socially  minded 
to  an  extreme; 

Am  definitely,  unsocial; 
prefer  to  work  and  play 
alone;  refuse  to  be  drawn 

prefer^be^wfth  people                  More  socially  minded                             Averase                              Less  socially  minded 
most  of  the  time                          than  the  average                            in  this  respect                             than  the  average 

into  group  activities  when 
I  can  possibly  avoid  them 

•  

.  1  

APPENDIX:  DATA  ON  RATE  OF  REPRODUCTION 

t)  How  persistent  are  you  in  the  accomplishment  of  your  ends? 


171 


I  won't  give  up;                          Am  more  persistent 

Average 

Less  persistent 
than  the  average 

Very  easily  deterred  by 
obstacles;  give  up  in  the 
face  of  even  trivial 

every  d 

fficulty                                  person 

m  this  respect 

person 

difficulties 

I 

1 

/"                                            ' 

1 

v       t  i 

/)  Do  you  have  a  program  with  definite  purposes  in  terms  of  which  you  apportion  your  time  and  energy? 


My  life  is  completely 
integrated  toward  a 
'  '  tegoal 


-I- 


I  have  a  well-established 
plan  for  my  life  and 
usually  keep  to  it 


-I- 


Aw  inclined  to  drift  and 

to  be  satisfied  with  just 

"getttn*  by" .  ' 


Drift  entirely; 

no  definite  life  plan; 

leave  everything  to 

chance 


k)  How  sensitive  are  your  feelings? 


Extremely  lacking  in 
sensitiveness;  thick-skinned; 
almost  impossible  to 
hurt  my  feelings 

!    -  -    

Less  sensitive 
than  the  average 
1 

Average 
in  this  respect 

More  sensitive 
than  the  average 

Extremely  sensitive 
and  tain-skinned. 
Many  things  hart  me 
that  others  would  not 

,        1 

/)  To  what  extent  have  you  suffered  from  feelings  of  inferiority? 


Have  rarely  or  never  been 

conscious  of  such  feelings  ; 

I  have  a  feeling  of  adequacy 

which  almost  never     ,  a 

deserts  m  ' 


Have  probably  suffered 

less  from  this  cause 

than  the  average 

person 


Have  probably  suffered 

more  from  this  cause 

than  the  average 


Inferiority  feelings  have 

been  the  bane  of  my  life; 

have  suffered  agonies  f  rotn 

then  and  still  do 


15.  Supplemental  data :  Will  you  please  add  below  any  further  data  or  explanations  that  will  contribute  to  an  understanding 
of  your  life  to  date. 


172  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


Gifted  Children  Follow-up 
Stanford  University,  1950-51 


Name  of  gifted  subject 

(Gifted  women  include  maiden  name) 


Gifted  subject's  age Sex  (M  or  F) Date  of  filling  out  blank 

Age  of  spouse Code  number  of  blank 


DATA  ON  RATE  OF  REPRODUCTION 

Explanation.  The  purpose  of  this  questionnaire  is  to  obtain  information  on  factors  which  may  have  influenced  the  rate  of 
reproduction  in  the  gifted  group  to  the  present  time.  Although  numerous  studies  have  been  made  of  the  number  of  chil- 
dren born  to  college  graduates  and  certain  other  groups,  no  serious  investigation  has  been  made  of  the  jactors  which  have 
influenced  fecundity  in  a  large  group  of  intellectually  superior  persons.  Such  data  on  this  group  would  be  of  great  interest 
to  sociologists,  psychologists,  and  students  of  population  trends. 
It  will  be  noted  that  the  questionnaire  is  divided  into  two  parts ; 

PART  I-FOR  PERSONS  WHO  HAVE  NEVER  BEEN  MARRIED 
PART  II— FOR  PERSONS  WHO  ARE  OR  HAVE  BEEN  MARRIED 

The  data  will  be  used  for  statistical  purposes  only,  and  it  is  hoped  that  returns  can  be  obtained  from  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible 100  percent  of  the  group.  The  blanks  will  be  kept  in  a  separate  confidential  file.  As  soon  as  each  blank  is  returned 


PART  I— FOR  SUBJECTS  WHO  HAVE  NEVER  BEEN  MARRIED 

1.  How  do  you  feel  now  about  not  having  married?  (Check  one  of  following) : 

No  regret ;  Mild  regret ;  Considerable  regret ;  Strong  regret 

2.  Reasons  for  not  marrying : 

(Below  are  listed  numerous  possible  reasons,  each  preceded  by  a  dotted  line.  On  the  dotted  line  check  once  (V)  each 
reason  that  influenced  you  in  any  degree.  Double  check  (VV)  the  more  important  reasons  in  your  case.  Triple  check 
( VW)  ^e  one  most  important  reason) 

(1)  Feared  marriage  would  interfere  with  my  career 

(2)  \rttfZ?...  Disappointment  in  love  (unhappy  love  affair,  etc.) 

(3)  Responsibility  for  support  of  parents  or  other  relatives 

(4)  Poor  physical  or  mental  health 

(5)  Bad  heredity  in  my  ancestry 

(6)  m.k£!L.  Little  or  no  interest  in  physical  aspects  of  sex 

(7)  |,^^£*/Positive  dislike  of  physical  aspects  of  sex 

(8)  ....irfi.JU-r'  Preference  for  companionship  of  my  own  sex 

(9)  JU^-L^  Feelings  of  antagonism  toward  the  opposite  sex 

(10)  Parental  opposition  to  my  getting  married 

(11)  Strong  attachment  between  me  and  my  father 

(12)  -i/.|/'...  Strong  attachment  between  me  and  my  mother 

(13)  Marital  unhappiness  of  my  parents 

(14)  Just  never  found  the  right  person 

(15)  Other  reasons  (specify)  


APPENDIX:    DATA  ON  RATE  OF  REPRODUCTION 


173 


PART  II— FOR  SUBJECTS  WHO  HAVE  MARRIED 

1.  Number  of  offspring : 

(a)  How  many  children  have  been  born  to  you  (live  births)  ?  _. „ 

(&)  Number  of  children  deceased  (including  still  births) ....... 

(c)  Number  of  wife's  miscarriages  (including  both  spontaneous  and  induced)  _ 

2.  Is  the  number  of  children  born  to  you  the  number  you  originally  wanted  or  planned  to  have  ?  Yes ;  No 

If  answer  is  NO,  how  many  did  you  want  or  plan  for? 

3.  If  life  could  be  lived  over,  how  many  children  would  you  try  for? „ 

4.  Menopause  status  of  wife  (check) :  Menopause  not  yet  started ;  Has  begun  but  is  not  over ;  Is  apparently 

over 

5.  Duration  of  marriage  (if  more  than  one,  give  data  separately  for  each)  : 


*~&zsssr 

Your  *pouse»*»  age  then 
(YnHtmoa.) 

If  narri**e  ended,  indicate  how.  (Deatiof 
tpoosc,  divorce,  or  separation) 

If  narroiK  ended,  rive  dtte 
(Yr.  &«o.) 

First  marriage 

Second  marriage 

Third  marriage 

6.  Give  for  each  marriage  the  approximate  number  of  months  you  and  your  spouse  were  away  from  each  other  for  any 
reason,  such  as  war,  long  trips,  impending  break-up  of  the  marriage,  etc.  Do  not  count  any  single  separation  that  lasted 
less  than  six  months. 

First  marriage  .  *  Second - - ',  Third 

7.  Extent  to  which  you  and/or  your  spouse  have  practiced  birth  control  (check)  : 

Never ;  Rarely  and  only  for  brief  periods ;  Regularly  for  one  or  two  years  only ;  Regularly  for 

more  than  two  years ;  Approximate  number  of  years  during  which  birth  control  methods  were  regularly  used 

(that  is,  total  of  all  such  periods  in  your  married  life,  counting  all  marriages  if  there  were  more  than  one)  : 

8.  If  birth  control  methods  were  never  used,  or  only  for  very  brief  periods,  give  reason  (or  reasons)  why  they  were  not. 


174  TflE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

9.  Reasons  for  any  birth  control  practised  for  as  much  as  one  year  (check  once  each  reason  that  operated  in  any  degree, 
double  check  all  important  reasons,  and  triple  check  the  one  most  important  reason)  : 

To  space  pregnancies  at  appropriate  intervals  ..........  ;  Inadequate  income  ..........  ;  Housing  difficulties  ..........  ;  Husband's 

health  __________  ;  Wife's  health  ..........  ;  Wife's  preference  for  career  ..........  ;  Necessary  for  wife  to  work  in  order  to  supple- 

ment husband's  income  ..........  ;  Wife's  dislike  of  pregnancy  or  fear  of  childbirth  ..........  ;  Uncertainty  due  to  war  or 

threat  of  war  ..........  ;  Bad  heredity  on  one  or  both  sides  ..........  ;  Unhappiness  of  the  marriage  ..........  ;  Husband  no  de- 

sire for  children  ..........  ;  Wife  no  desire  for  children  ..........  ;  Other  reasons  (specify)  ...................................................... 


10.  Did  any  pregnancies  occur  because  of  failure  of  birth  control  methods  that  were  being  used?  ..........  ;  If  so,  how  many? 


11.  Has  it  happened  that  a  child  was  born  to  you  after  you  had  decided  that  your  family  was  as  large  as  you  wanted? 
Yes ;  No If  answer  is  Yes,  how  may  times  did  this  occur? 

12.  Has  it  happened  that  over  a  long  period  of  time,  when  you  and  your  spouse  neither  practised  abstinence  nor  used 

any  birth  control  measures,  no  pregnancy  resulted?  Yes ;  No If  answer  is  yes,  indicate  the  approximate 

date  (or  dates)  during  which  conception  failed  to  occur : 

From to ;  From to ;  From to 

What  do  you  think  was  the  reason  that  no  pregnancy  occurred  during  such  periods? 

13.  Have  you  or  your  spouse  ever  consulted  a  doctor  to  find  out  why  pregnancy  failed  to  occur?  Husband  has ; 

Wife  has ;  Neither What  was  the  doctor's  opinion  about  failure  of  pregnancy  to  occur? 

His  opinion  about  husband - 

His  opinion  about  wife , , „ 

14.  (a)  How  many  siblings  (i.e.,  brothers  and  sisters)  have  you  had?  (Include  both  living  and  deceased ;  also  include  half 

brothers  and  sisters)  

(b)  How  many  siblings  has  your  spouse  had,  reckoned  in  same  way? 

(c)  If  your  present  marriage  is  not  your  first,  give  the  number  of  siblings  each  previous  spouse  had 


APPENDIX  :   THE  HAPPINESS  OF  YOUR  MARRIAGE  175 

15.  (a)  Your  religion  (check):  Catholic ;  Protestant ;  Other ;  None 

(b)  Your  spouses's  religion :  Catholic ;  Protestant ;  Other ;  None 

(c)  If  this  marriage  is  not  your  first,  state  religion  of  each  previous  spouse 


16.  The  happiness  of  your  marriage : 

(a)  Do  you  and  your  spouse  engage  in  outside  interests  together?  (check)  AH  of  them ;  Most  of  them ; 

Some  of  them ;  Very  few  of  them ;  None  of  them 

(&)  Do  you  ever  regret  your  marriage?  (check)  Frequently ;  Occasionally ;  Rarely ;  Never 

(r)  Have  you  ever  seriously  contemplated  either  separation  or  divorce?  (check)  Yes No 

(<f)  Can  you  truthfully  say  that  your  spouse  never  does  or  says  anything  that  irritates  or  bores  you  in  the  slightest? 

(check)  Completely  true ;  Almost  completely  true ;  Questionable ;  Untrue 

(e)  Can  you  truthfully  say  that  when  you  have  any  unexpected  leisure  you  always  prefer  to  spend  it  with  your  spouse? 
(check)  Completely  true ;  Almost  completely  true ;  Questionable ;  Untrue 

(/)  Everything  considered,  how  happy  has  your  marriage  been?  (check)  Extraordinarily  happy ;  Decidedly 

more  happy  than  the  average ;  Somewhat  more  happy  than  the  average ;  About  average ;  Per- 
haps a  little  less  happy  than  the  average ;  Definitely  less  happy  than  the  average „ ;  Extremely  un- 
happy   

(g)  How  well  mated  are  you  and  your  spouse  from  the  strictly  sexual  point  of  view?  (check)  No  two  could  be  more 

perfectly  mated  sexually ;  Extremely  well  mated ;  Reasonably  well ;  Not  well ;  Very 

badly 


176  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


Gifted  Children  Follow-up 
Stanford  University,  1950-51 


Name  of  person  filling  out  blank  .. 


(Name  to  be  cut  out  on  this  tine) 


Age  of  person  filling  blank Date  of  filling  out  blank  . 


Sex Code  number  of  blank 

MorF 


THE  HAPPINESS  OF  YOUR  MARRIAGE 

Note:  This  blank  to  be  filled  out  by  the  husbands  and  wives  of  gifted  subjects.  Please  be  objective  and  frank.  The 
data  will  be  regarded  as  highly  confidential  and  will  be  used  for  statistical  purposes  only. 

LEWIS  M.  TERMAN 


(a)  Do  you  and  your  spouse  engage  in  outside  interests  together?  (check)  All  of  them ;  Most  of  them ;  Some 

of  them ;  Very  few  of  them ;  None  of  them 

(b)  Do  you  ever  regret  your  marriage?  (check)  Frequently ;  Occasionally ;  Rarely ;  Never 

(c)  Have  you  ever  seriously  contemplated  either  separation  or  divorce  ?  Yes No 

(d)  Can  you  truthfully  say  that  your  spouse  never  does  or  says  anything  that  irritates  or  bores  you  in  the  slightest? 
(check)  Completely  true ;  Almost  completely  true ;  Questionable ;  Untrue 

(*)  Can  you  truthfully  say  that  when  you  have  any  unexpected  leisure  you  always  prefer  to  spend  it  with  your  spouse? 
(check)  Completely  true ;  Almost  completely  true ;  Questionable ;  Untrue 

(f)   Everything  considered,  how  happy  has  your  marriage  been?  (check)  Extraordinarily  happy ;  Decidedly  more 

happy  than  the  average *,  Somewhat  more  happy  than  the  average ;  About  average ;  Perhaps  a 

little  less  happy  than  the  average ;  Definitely  less  happy  than  the  average ;  Extremely  unhappy 

(0)  How  well  mated  are  you  and  your  spouse  from  the  strictly  sexual  point  of  view  ?  (check)  No  two  could  be  more  per- 
fectly mated  sexually ;  Extremely  well  mated ;  Reasonably  well ;  Not  well ;  Very  badly 


APPEXDIX  :    REPORT  OF  FIELD  WORKER  177 


REPORT  OF  FIELD  WORKER 

Name  of  subject     .  .       ...          

Name  of  field  worker  .  ...  ..  .  S£*v«v          -  -  - 

Informants  .  .  .  -  

Address  ...  .  . 

1.  Additional  education  or  plans  for  further  study. 

2.  (a)  Occupation,  (b)  vocational  and  avocational  interests,  (c)  recreation,  (d)  dynamics  (drive,  consistency  of  goal, 
satisfaction  with  goals). 

3.  Special  abilities:  Nature,  degree  of  success. 

4.  Attitude  of  subject  toward  gifted  study,  own  giftedness,  school  acceleration,  etc.,  leading  possibly  into  discussion  of 
inferiority  feelings  (if  any),  feelings  of  adequacy  and  confidence,  aspirations,  etc. 

5.  Intellectuality  of  interests;  impression  of  cultural  level. 

6.  Health,  nervous  tendencies,  emotional  adjustment. 

7.  Marital  status.    Include  education,  occupation,  and  personality  of  spouse. 

8.  Family  constellation.    Include  parents,  offspring  and  others  in  household. 

9.  Home,  neighborhood,  other  evidences  of  socio-economic  status,  including  financial  worries. 
10.  Special  notes  and  comments.   Total  impression. 

[Here  followed  two  and  one-half  pages  of  ruled  space  for  the  field  worker's 
report  on  the  ten  items  above.] 


178  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

RATINGS  OF  SUBJECT 


Subject 
12345                                              1.  Appearance 

Spouse 
12345 

12345                                              2.  Attractiveness 

12345 

12345                                              3.  Poise 

12345 

12345                                            4.  Speech 

12345 

12345                                            5.  Vanity 

12345 

12345                                            6.  Alertness 

12345 

12345                                             7.  Friendliness 

12345 

12345                                             8.  Loquacity 

12345 

12345                                               9.  Frankness 

12345 

12345                                             10.  Attention 

12345 

12345                                             11.  Curiosity 

12345 

12345  12.  Originalky  12345 


APPENDIX:  INFORMATION  BLANK  (1955) 


179 


Gifted  Children  Follow-up 
Stanford  University,  1955 


Date  of  filling:  out  this  blank 

INFORMATION  BLANK 


Full  name Age  at  last  birthday 

(Married  women  include  maiden  name) 

Address  Telephone 

1.  Education:  List  any  courses  taken  and  degrees  or  certificates  received  since  1950: 

2.  Occupation  and  earned  income  (for  income  report  annual  salary  before  income  tax  deductions).  If  self-employed  (doc- 
tor, lawyer,  business  owner)  give  equivalent  of  salary,  i.e.,  income  less  operating  expenses. 

Year  Profession,  job,  or  position  Exact  nature  of  work  I  Earned  income  per  year 

1952 

1953 

1954 

3.  Approximate  annual  income,  if  any,  of  self  and  spouse  from  sources  other  than  earnings 

4.  Any  special  honors,  awards,  offices  held  in  clubs  or  organizations,  biographical  listings,  etc.  (specify) 

5.  Marital  status  (check)  Single Married Widowed Separated Divorced 

Date  of  marriage If  this,  or  previous  marriage  ended  in  divorce,  give  date(s) 

6.  About  your  spouse:  Name ~ His  (her)  age.. 

(Maiden  name  of  wife) 

Highest  grade  or  college  year  of  schooling What  school  or  college? „ 

Present  occupation Present  annual  earned  income 

7.  Offspring :  (If  any  grandchildren  please  attach  list  with  name,  sex,  and  age  of  each) 

Star  DateofWrtli  Schoolgrade    j       age  it  death  Cause  of  death 

8.  Other  information  regarding  your  spouse  or  children  that  you  think  would  be  of  interest 


180  THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 

9.  Special  accomplishments,  honors,  or  misfortunes  among  near  relatives  (parents,  brothers,  sisters)  since  1950.  If  any 
deceased,  give  date  and  cause  of  death 


10.  Your  general  physical  health  since  1950 :  (underline)  very  good good fair poor very  poor  . 

Illnesses,  accidents  or  surgery  in  recent  years 


After  effects .. 


11.  Has  there  been  any  tendency  toward  nervousness,  special  anxieties,  emotional  difficulties,  or  nervous  breakdown  ? .. 
Date  and  nature  of  such  difficulties 


How  handled  (medical  or  psychiatric  help,  hospitalization,  etc.)  Give  details  . 
Present  condition  (free  from  difficulty,  improved,  no  change,  worse,  etc.)  


12.  Add  any  further  significant  information  regarding  yourself  or  your  family  which  has  not  been  covered  above  or  for  which 
the  space  provided  was  inadequate.  Also  list  here  any  publications,  patents,  or  other  creative  work  since  1950. 


INDEX 


Abilities :  compared  with  generality,  9, 
16  ;  degree  of  unevenness,  9,  16 ;  early 
indications  of,  8;  versatility  shown 
in  occupations  and  avocations,  106, 
107  ff. ;  see  also  Special  abilities 

Acceleration  in  school,  see  School  ac- 
celeration 

Achievement  quotients :  as  related  to 
amount  of  schooling,  9 ;  compared 
with  control  group,  9 ;  see  also  Edu- 
cational histories 

Achievement  tests  :  1921-22,  5,  8  f. ; 
1928,  17 

Achievement  to  1955 : 

— appraisal  of :  educational  achieve- 
ments, 71  f.,  144 ;  vocational  achieve- 
ments, 106,  145  ff. 

— biographical  listings:  of  men,  146 f.; 
of  women,  145  ;  increase  in,  149  f. 

— compared  with  generality,  145  i. 

— illustrations  of  achievement :  men, 
83  ff.,  146  1,  150  f. ;  women,  88  ff.,  145 

— outlook  for  future  achievement, 
149  ff. 

— personality  factors  as  determiners  of 
achievement,  148  f. 

— Sec  also  Success 

Adjustment  general,  28,  35  ff.,  1481; 
sec  also  Mental  health  and  general 
adjustment 

Alcoholism,  21,  28,  143;  as  a  mental 
disorder,  40  ;  definition,  45  ;  incidence 
compared  with  generality,  45  f. ;  rat- 
ings on  use  of  liquor,  44  f. ;  sex  dif- 
ference in,  50  f. ;  subjects  hospital- 
ized, 40 

American  Men  of  Science:  145  f.,  150; 
listings  of  men,  146 ;  listings  of  wom- 
en, 88,  145 ;  listing  as  indication  of 
achievement,  145  f. 

Analogies  test,  52,  55 

Anderson,  E.  E.,  153 

Anderson,  J.  E.,  153 

Anthropometric  measurements,  5,  6,  8, 
34 


Army    Alpha    Test,    subjects    selected 

by,  3 
A  vocational  interests,   107  ff. ;  117;  as 

related   to    special    abilities,    llOff. ; 

number    of,    107  ff. ;    reading,     109 ; 

leading  hobbies,  108  f. ;  as  related  to 

age,   107  f.;   sex  differences  in,   108; 

see  also  Special  abilities 

Background  of  study :  origin  and  pur- 
pose, vii  ff. ;  plan  of  research,  1  ff. 
Ballin,  Marian,  xiii 
Bayley,  Nancy,  xii,  61,  153 
Buchholtz,  Shiela,  xiii 
Bunzel,  B..  44,  153 
Burks,  Barbara  S.,  153 

Cady,  V.  M.f  11,  153 

Careers  of  men  and  women,  73  ff . ;  see 
also  Occupational  status 

Carnegie  Corporation,  v 

Cattell,  Jacques,  153 

Character  tests:  scores  of  gifted  and 
control  subjects,  5,  11  f.,  16 

Ciocco,  Antonio,  153 

Columbia  Foundation,  v 

Commonwealth  Fund,  v,  viii,  1 

Community  service:  107,  115f. ;  recog- 
nition and  honors,  115 

Composite  portrait  of  typical  gifted 
child,  1922,  15  f.;  1927-28,  18  f. 

Concept  Mastery  scores :  as  related  to 
Binet  IQ,  57  ff.,  143  f. ;  as  related  to 
education,  57  ff . ;  as  related  to  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  135 ;  as  related  to 
mental  health  and  general  adjust- 
ment, 49  f . ;  as  related  to  radicalism- 
conservatism,  125  f .,  131 ;  method  of 
equating  Forms  A  and  T  scores,  61  f. ; 
of  spouses  compared  with  college 
groups,  138;  of  subjects  and  spouses, 
56  f . ;  of  various  groups  tested,  60  ; 
sex  differences,  57;  test-retest  com- 
parisons, 61  ff.,  142  ff. ;  see  also  Con- 
cept Mastery  test ;  Intelligence 


181 


182 


THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


Concept  Mastery  test,  23,  24,  25,  27, 
52  ff,,  as  affected  by  schooling,  53 ; 
correlation  between  Forms  A  and  T, 

55  f. ;  description  of,  52  ff. ;  Form  A 
compared  with  Form  T,  54  f. ;  groups 
tested,  59  1 ;  normative  data,  59  ff . ; 
reliability  and  validity,   54  f. ;   score 
distributions  of  subjects  and  spouses, 

56  f. ;    sec    also    Concept    Mastery 
scores 

Co-operation  of  subjects,  xi,  20,  21,  25  f. 
Cox,  Catharine  M.,  xi,  153 
Crime  and  delinquency,  28,  46,  51 

Data  on  Rate  of  Reproduction  blank, 
23,  24,  27,  172  fi. 

Davis,  Kingsley,  153 

Delinquency,  21 ;  sec  also  Crime  and  de- 
linquency 

Directory  of  American  Scholars,  145, 
146 ;  listings  of  men,  146  f. ;  listings 
of  women,  145;  listing  as  indication 
of  achievement,  145  1 

Divorce :  incidence  of,  133  ff. ;  as  re- 
lated to  education,  133  f. ;  as  related 
to  general  adjustment  rating,  135 ;  as 
related  to  intelligence,  135  ;  as  related 
to  scores  on  Marital  Happiness  Test, 
135  f. 

Doyle,  Babette,  xiii 

Dublin,  L.  L,  28,  31,  32,  44,  139,  153 

DuBois,  Cornelius,  153 

Early  development,  see  Physical  his- 
tory 

Education  of  gifted  children,  contribu- 
tions to,  xii,  72 

Educational  histories : 

—acceleration,  8,  21,  22,  72 

— achievement  quotients,  9 

—achievement  tests,  1922,  81;  1928,  17 

— age  at  completing  high  school,  72 

— age  at  entering  school,  8 

— age  at  learning  to  read,  8 

— amount  of  education  compared  with 
parents'  attitude  toward  college  at- 
tendance, 71 

— amount  of  education,  64  ff. 

— amount  of  education  as  related  to : 
divorce,  133  f. ;  education  of  parents, 
71;  income  (men),  941;  income 


(women),  981;  intelligence,  57  ff.; 
marriage,  133 ;  radicalism-conserva- 
tism, 122 

— college  grades,  67  f. 

— college  graduation,  64  ff. 

— college  graduation  compared  with 
generality,  65 

— educational  record  appraised,  71 1, 
144 

— failures  in  college,  68 

— graduate  study  and  degrees,  65  ff. 

— graduate  study  compared  with  gen- 
erality, 66  f . 

— graduation  honors,  67  f. 

— major  fields  of  study,  68 

— school  achievement,  1928,  18 

— schooling  of  parents,  6,  71 

— subject's  opinion  on  amount  of  school- 
ing, 69 

— subject's  report  on  parents'  attitude 
toward  schooling,  70  1 

— See  also  School  acceleration 


Family  background  of  subjects,  51; 
see  also  Parents 

Fertility:  1391;  of  group  to  1945,  22; 
as  related  to  age  of  gifted  women, 
140 ;  as  related  to  age  of  wives  of 
gifted  men,  140;  see  also  Offspring 

Field  workers,  xii,  56;  reports  of,  17, 
20  1,  26,  45,  177 1 

Follow-ups : 

—1927-28,  17ff.;  data  obtained,  171; 
summary  of  findings,  18  f. 

—1936,  191 

—1939-40,  20  ff.;  data  obtained,  21; 
summary  of  findings,  21  f. 

— 1945,  21 ;  summary  of  findings,  21 1 

—1950-52,  23  ff.;  data  obtained,  231; 
inforrnation  schedules,  23 

—1955,  23  ff. 

Fund  for  the  Advancement  of  Educa- 
tion, v 


Galton,  Francis,  22 

Gebhard,  P.  H.,  154 

General  adjustment,  see  Mental  health 

and  general  adjustment 
General  Information  Blank,  1950:   23, 

24,27,  44,  107,  114,  119,  160  ff. 


INDEX 


183 


Goldhamer,  H.,  42,  43,  153 

Goodenough,  Florence  L,  xii,  153 

Happiness  of  Your  Marriage  Blank, 
24,  27,  135  1,  176 

Havemann,  Ernest,  79,  80,  98,  117,  133, 
134,  154 

Health  history,  6  ff. ;  1928,  18 ;  sec  also 
Physical  health 

Height :  reported  by  subjects,  1940,  34; 
see  also  Anthropometric  measure- 
ments 

Henry,  A.  F.,  32,  154 

Hirning,  Alma  L.,  154 

Hirning,  J.  L.,  154 

Hobbies,  see  Avocational  interests 

Homosexuality,  21,  47  if.,  51,  143 

Income,  earned : 

—of  men,  93  ff. ;  as  related  to  age,  93 
f . ;  as  related  to  education,  94  f . ;  as 
related  to  opinion  on  extent  abilities 
lived  up  to,  104 ;  as  related  to  radi- 
calism-conservatism, 1241;  as  re- 
lated to  vocational  satisfaction,  104 ; 
as  a  source  of  satisfaction,  105;  by 
occupation,  95  ff. ;  comparison  with 
generality,  97  f . 

— of  women,  98  f . ;  as  related  to  educa- 
tion, 98  f. ;  as  related  to  radicalism- 
conservatism,  125 ;  as  a  source  of 
satisfaction,  105 ;  by  occupation,  99 

Income:  total  family,  lOOf. ;  compared 
with  generality,  100  1 ;  as  related  to 
radicalism- conservatism,  125 

Information  About  Child  blank  (off- 
spring), 23,  24 

Information  Blank,  1955  :  24,  27  ff. 

Information  obtained : 

—1921-23,  4ff. 

—1927-28, 17  f. 

—1936, 19  f. 

—1939-40,  21 

—1945,21 

— 1950-52,  23  ff. 

—1955,  24  ff. 

Information  schedules  reproduced: 
157  ff. 

— Data  on  Rate  of  Reproduction,  172  ff. 

—General  Information  (1950),  160  ff. 

— The  Happiness  of  Your  Marriage, 
176 

—Information  Blank  (1955),  179f. 


—Report  of  Field  Worker,  1771 

— Supplementary     Biographical    Data, 
164ff. 

Intellectual  abilities:  subjects  opinion 
on  extent  lived  up  to,  104  f. 

Intellectual  status : 

—as  of  1940,  22,  54;   as  of  1950-52, 
52  ff. 

— compared  with  general  it}',  54,  60  f. 

— estimate  of  changes  in:  to  1928,  18; 
to  1940,  54;  to  1952,  61  ff. 

— maintenance  of  intellectual  superior- 
ity, xii,  61  ff. ;  143  1 

Intelligence : 

— and  amount  of  education,  57  ff. 

— correlation  with  desirable  traits,  142 

— maintenance  of,  61  ff. ;  143  f. 

— of  offspring,  141  1 

— as  related  to  general  adjustment,  49  f. 

— as  related  to  marriage,  135 

— as  related  to  radicalism-conservatism, 
1251 

— Sec  aho  Concept  Mastery  scores ;  In- 
tellectual Status ;  Stanford-Binet  test 

Intelligence  tests : 

—1921-22,21 

—1927-28,  171 

—1939-40,  52  ff. 

—1950-52,  52  ff. 

Interest  Blank,  for  subjects : 

—1921-22,5,91 

—1928, 17 

Interests:  avocational,  107ff. ;  reading 
interests,  109,  117;  versatility  of  107 
ff. 

Interests  in  childhood,  9  ff. ;  in  plays 
and  games,  10 ;  reading  interests,  1 1 ; 
scholastic  interests,  9 ;  vocational  in- 
terests, 10;  sec  also  Play  interests 

IQ :  distribution  of  IQ's  of  offspring, 
141  1 ;  of  subjects  when  selected,  2  1 ; 
predictive  value  of,  144;  subjects 
with  IQ  170  or  above,  21,  125  1 ;  sec 
alstt  Intelligence 

Jellinek,  K.  M.,  46,  154 
Jensen,  Dortha  \V.,  153 
Juvenilia,  literary,  181 

Keller,  Mark,  46,  154 
Kinsey,  A.  C,  48,  51, 154 


184 


THE  GIFTED  GROUP  AT  MID-LIFE 


Labor  organizations:  activity  in,  114; 

membership  in,  113  1 
Landis,  Carney,  154 
Lange-Eichbaum,  Wilhelm,  148, 154 
Lehman,  H.  C,  149, 154 
Lotka,  A.  J.,  153 

McNemar,  Olga  \VM  xii 

McXemar,  Quinn,  viii,  xiii,  4,  154 

Malzberg,  Benjamin,  42  f.,  154 

Marital  aptitude  test,  22 

Marital  happiness  test,  22,  23,  24,  47, 
135  i. 

Marital  selection : 

— age  difference  between  spouses,  137  f. 

— education  of  spouses,  58,  137 

— intelligence  of  spouses  :  58,  138 ;  com- 
pared with  college  groups,  138  t 

— intermarriages  in  group,  139 

— occupational  status  of  spouses,  137  f. 

— Sec  also  Marriage 

Marriage  : 

—age  at,  132 

—incidence  to  1945,  22 

— incidence  by  age  to  1955,  132  ff. 

— incidence  by  amount  of  education,  133 

— marital  happiness :  scores  on  happi- 
ness test,  135  f. ;  rating  on  happiness 
of  marriage,  136;  compared  with 
generality,  136 

— as  related  to  intelligence,  135 

— Sec  also  Divorce;  Fertility;  Marital 
selection 

Marsden  Foupdation,  v 

Marshall,  A.,  42,  43,  153 

Marshall,  Helen,  xii 

Martin,  C.  E.,  154 

Medical  examinations,  4  f.,  7  f.,  34 

Memberships  in  clubs  and  organiza- 
tions, 107,  112,  117;  kinds  of,  113; 
number  of,  112 

Mental  adjustment,  sec  Mental  health 
and  general  adjustment 

Mental  deficiency,  among  offspring  of 
subjects,  142 

Mental  disease:  21,  28 

— age  at  hospitalization,  41 

— definition  of,  41  f. 

— diagnosis  of  illness,  40 

— expectancy  of,  42  f. 

— incidence  compared  with  generality, 
41  ff. 


— length  of  hospitalization,  39  f. 

— number  hospitalized,  37  ff. 

— recovery  from,  38  ff. 

— subjects  hospitalized,  37  ff. 

— Sec  also  Alcoholism  ;  Suicide 

Mental  health  and  general  adjustment, 
xii,  28,  35  ff.,  143 

— basis  for  ratings,  35 

— definition  of  ratings,  35  f. 

— incidence  of  mental  disease,  21,  37  ff. 

— mental  disease  defined,  41  f . 

— ratings  on  mental  health  and  general 
adjustment,  36  ff. 

— as  related  to  education,  49  f . 

— as  related  to  intelligence,  49  f. 

— as  related  to  marital  status,  135 

— as  related  to  radicalism-conservatism, 
126  f. 

— Sec  also  Alcoholism ;  Delinquency ; 
Homosexuality ;  Mental  disease,  Sui- 
cide 

Merrill,  Maud  A.,  154 

Minnesota  Occupational  Scale,  73,  80, 
81,  87,  137 

Mortality,  24,  28  ff. ;  age  at  death,  29 ; 
causes  of,  29  f . ;  compared  with  gen- 
erality, 29 ;  education  of  deceased 
subjects,  32  f. ;  incidence  of,  29;  IQ 
of  deceased  subjects,  32;  mental  ill- 
ness among  deceased  subjects,  38  ff . ; 
occupation  of  deceased  subjects,  33; 
suicides,  30  ff. 

Murphy,  J.  V.,  153 

National  Academy  of  Sciences :  elec- 
tions to,  146, 150 

National  Intelligence  Test,  2,  3,  4 ;  sub- 
jects selected  by,  2  f. 

National  Research  Council,  v 

Nervous  disorders,  sec  Mental  health 
and  general  adjustment 

Norris,  Dorothy,  155 

Occupational  classification,  sec  Minne- 
sota Occupational  Scale,  also  Occu- 
pational status 

Occupational  status : 

— appraisal  of,  106,  144  ff. 

—gifted  men :  as  of  1955,  73  ff, ;  break- 
down of  occupational  groups,  74  ff. ; 
classification  of  occupations,  73  f. ; 
compared  with  generality  of  male 


185 


college  graduates,  79  ff . ;  illustrations 
of  occupations,  77  ff. ;  occupational 
changes  between  1940  and  1955, 
81  ff. ;  as  related  to  income,  95  f. ;  as 
related  to  radicalism-conservatism, 
123 

— gifted  women  :  as  of  1955,  85  ff. ;  ac- 
cording to  education,  86 ;  according 
to  marital  status,  85  f. ;  breakdown  of 
occupational  groups,  87  f. ;  classifica- 
tion of  occupations,  87;  illustrations 
of  careers,  88  ff. ;  as  related  to  in- 
come, 99  f. ;  as  related  to  opinion  on 
how  well  intellectual  abilities  lived  up 
to,  104  f. ;  as  related  to  radicalism- 
conservatism,  124 

— Sec  also  Achievement  to  1955  ;  Voca- 
tion 

Occupations,  childhood  preferences,  10  ; 
sec  also  Occupational  status 

Oden,  Melita  H.,  vii,  61,  153, 155 

Offspring :  incidence  of  twins,  140 ;  in- 
telligence of,  141  f. ;  number  of,  139  ; 
number  according  to  education, 
140  f, ;  number  of  adoptions,  142 ; 
number  of  deaths,  140;  number  of 
grandchildren,  142;  sex  ratio,  139 f.; 
sec  also  Fertility 

Page,  J.  D.,  154 

Parents :  education  of,  6,  71 ;  home  li- 
brary, 6;  income  of,  6;  listings  in 
ll'ho's  Who,  6;  occupations  of  fa- 
thers, 5  f. 

Patents,  number  awarded  to  1955,  88, 
145,  147 

Phi  Beta  Kappa,  67  f.,  144 

Physical  defects,  7  f.,  34  f. 

Physical  health,  6  ff.,  28  ff.,  143 ;  self- 
ratings,  33  ff. 

Physical  history :  early  development, 
7  f . ;  birth  history,  7 ;  sec  also  Health 
history 

Play  information,  test  of,  10  f. 

Play  interests,  16;  as  measures  of  in- 
terest maturity,  10;  as  measures  of 
masculinity-femininity,  10 ;  as  meas- 
ures of  sociability,  10 ;  test  of,  5,  10 

Political  and  social  attitudes  : 

— party  preferences,  127  f. 

— political  activities,  129  f. ;  offices  held, 
1291 


— self-ratings  on  radicalism-conserva- 
tism, 118  ff. ;  as  related  to  age,  121  f. ; 
as  related  to  education,  122 ;  as  re- 
lated to  general  adjustment,  126  f. ; 
as  related  to  income,  124  1 ;  as  re- 
lated to  intelligence,  125  f.;  as  re- 
lated to  occupation,  123f. ;  as  re- 
lated to  political  preferences,  128; 
comparison  of  1940  and  1950  ratings, 
120  f. ;  sex  differences  in,  120 

— summarized,  130  f. 

— voting  habits,  129 

Pomeroy,  \V.  B.,  154 

Pressey  Group  Test,  4 

Psychological  Corporation,  54 

Public  offices  :  election  to  public  office, 
129  f. ;  appointive  offices  held,  1291; 
sec  also  Political  and  social  attitudes 

Publications,  number  and  kinds :  for 
men,  110,  1471;  for  women.  110,  145 

Racial  origin,  5 

Radicalism-conservatism,  sec  Political 
and  social  attitudes 

Raubenheimer,  A.  S..  11,  12, 154 

Reading,  5 ;  age  at  learning,  8 ;  reading 
interests  as  adults,  109,  117;  reading 
interests  in  childhood,  11 

Religion:  affiliations,  116;  attitudes  to- 
ward, 1161,  118;  religious  training, 
116;  sex  differences  in  membership, 
1161 

Reproduction,  rate  of,  sec  Fertility 

Rockefeller  Public  Service  Award,  130 

School  acceleration,  8,  21,  22,  72;  and 
graduate  study,  72;  as  a  method  of 
providing  for  the  gifted,  72 ;  progress 
quotients,  8  1 

Schooling,  sec  Educational  histories 

Scottish  investigations,  sex  differences 
in  variability,  4 

Sears,  Robert,  xiii 

Selection  of  subjects:  procedures  used, 
2  ff . ;  tests  used,  2  ff . 

Semelman,  Barbara  B.,  32T 154 

Service  activities,  107,  114  ff.,  118;  con- 
tributions to  community  life,  115; 
memberships  in  community  welfare 
groups,  115;  recognitions  and  honors 
for,l  151 

Sex  adjustments,  22,  47  ff. 


186 


THE  GIFTED   GROUP  AT   MID-LIFE 


Sex  differences :  in  alcoholism,  46,  50  f. ; 
in  amount  of  schooling,  69 ;  in  avoca- 
tional  interests,  108 ;  in  church  mem- 
bership, 1161;  in  Concept  Mastery 
scores,  57 ;  in  incidence  of  crime  and 
delinquency,  51  ;  in  incidence  of  homo- 
sexuality, 51 ;  in  incidence  of  mental 
disease,  50 ;  in  IQ,  3  f . ;  in  IQ  of  off- 
spring, 141  f. ;  in  mortality  rate,  34 ; 
in  play  interests,  10 ;  in  radicalism- 
conservatism,  120;  in  ratings  on 
health,  34;  in  relationship  of  general 
adjustment  to  education  and  intelli- 
gence test  scores,  51 ;  in  suicide  rate, 
32,  50 ;  in  vocational  goals,  73,  106, 
145 

Sex  problems,  28,  46  ff . 

Sex  ratio :  among  subjects,  4 ;  of  off- 
spring, 139  f. 

Shea,  "Alice  Leahy,  xii 

Short.  J.F.  Jr.,  32, 154 

Siblings,  included  in  gifted  group,  2,  6 

Sigma  Xi,  67  f.,  144 

Social  attitudes,  sec  Political  and  social 
attitudes 

Social  origin,  5 

Spearman,  Charles,  52 

Special  abilities:  110  ff.,  150  i;  in  art, 
111;  in  dramatics,  111;  in  music, 
llOf. ;  illustrations  of  special  ability, 
lllf.;  as  related  to  vocations  and 
avocations,  110  ff. ;  writing  as  an  avo- 
cation, 110 

Spiegelman,  Mortimer,  153 

Spouses,  of  gifted,  see  Marital  selec- 
tion 

Stanford  Achievement  Test,  1922,  8  f. 

Stanford-Binet  IQ's:  changes  to  1928, 
18 ;  compared  with  Concept  Mastery 
scores,  57  f . ;  distributions  for  off- 
spring, 141  f. ;  of  subjects,  3;  sec  also 
Intelligence 

Stanford-Binet  test,  viii,  1  ff.,  23,  24,  27, 
61,  141  f.;  subjects  selected  by,  3; 
sec  also  Stanford-Binet  IQ's 

Strong,  E.  K.,  154 

Strong  Vocational  Interest  Blank,  21 ; 

Study :  in  adult  education  classes,  67 ; 
in  study  groups,  109,  117 ;  through  in- 
dependent reading,  109, 117 

Subjects:  basis  for  selection,  21;  co- 
operation of,  xi  1,  20,  21,  25  f.;  de- 


ceased subjects,  24,  29  ff.,  32;  effects 
of  inclusion  in  group,  20  ;  the  group  as 
of  1928,  17;  the  group  as  of  1940, 
20  i;  the  group  as  of  1952,  24;  the 
group  as  of  1955,  24;  intermarriages 
among,  139;  IQ's  of  subjects,  3; 
method  of  selection,  2  f . ;  number  lost, 
24,  25  ;  number  of,  3  ;  sex  ratio  among, 
4;  siblings  and  cousins  in  group,  6; 
proportion  living  in  California,  23, 
32 

Success :  differences  found  in  compari- 
son of  most  and  least  successful  men, 
148  f.;  measures  of,  145,  148  ff,, 
1511;  subjects'  opinion  of  what  con- 
stitutes success,  1511;  see  also 
Achievement  to  1955 

Suicide,  30  ff. ;  and  mental  disorder, 
43  f . ;  incidence  compared  with  gen- 
erality, 30  ff. ;  sex  differences  in,  32, 
50 

Sullivan,  Ellen,  xii 

Sumption,  M.  R.,  155 

Supplementary  Biographical  Data 
blank,  24,  27,  47,  64,  68,  101,  116,  136, 
151,  164  ff. 

Sward,  Keith,  53, 154 

Synonym-antonym  test,  52,  54  f . 

Terman  Group  Test,  21;  subjects  se- 
lected by,  2  i. 

Terman,  Frederick  E.,  viii 

Terman,  L.  M.,  vii  ff.,  xi  ff.,  4,  19,  146, 
153,  154,  155 

Thomas  Welton  Stanford  Fund,  v 

Thorndike  CA VD  test,  4 

Trait  ratings  by  parents  and  teachers, 
12  ff. ;  gifted  and  control  groups  com- 
pared, 13  ff. 

U.S.  Census  reports :  current  popula- 
tion reports,  100,  155;  statistical  ab- 
stract, 97, 155 

Vocation:  as  a  source  of  satisfaction, 
105  ;  subjects'  feelings  about,  101 ;  vo- 
cational achievements,  106;  voca- 
tional satisfaction  as  related  to  in- 
come, 104;  as  related  to  occupation, 
102  ff. ;  see  also  Occupational  status 

Voting  habits,  see  Political  and  social 
attitudes 


INDEX 


187 


Wallin,  Paul,  154 

Wechsler-Bellevue  test,  61 

Weight :  reported  by  subjects,  1940,  34  ; 
sec  also  Anthropometric  measure- 
ments 

West,  Patricia  Salter,  80,  98,  117,  133, 
134,  154 

Whittier  Scale  for  Grading  Home  Con- 
ditions, 6 

irho's  Who  in  America,  145,  146,  147, 
150,  155;  listings  of  men,  1461;  list- 


ings of  women,  145  ;  listing  as  indica- 
tion of  achievement,  145  ff. ;  parents 
listed  in,  6 

\Volfle,Dael,65,66,71,  155 

Woodbury,  R.  M.,  7,  155 

World  Health  Organization,  definition 
of  alcoholism,  45,  46,  50 

Writing  :  as  an  avocation,  110  ;  sec  also 
Avocational  interests 

Yearbook  of  American  Churches,  155 


124176